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THE 



^araHe of i\t €m f irgk 



A SEEMON 

ON 

THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 

JOSEPH A. SEISS, D.D. 

AUTHOR OF 

"LAST TIMES," "GOSPEL IN LEVITICUS," "LECTURES ON UEBREWS," ETC. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

SMITH, ENGLISH & CO., 23 NORTH SIXTH ST. 

BOSTON: GOULD & LINCOLN.— NEW YORK: SHELDON & CO. 

1862. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by \ 

JOSEPH A. SEISS, D.D., \ 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern < 

District of Pennsylvania. \ 



STEREOTYPED BY L. JOHNSON * CO. 
PHILADELPHIA. 










PREFACE. 



The following Discourses, on the Parable of the Vir- 
gins, were preached in St. John's Lutheran Church, Phila- 
delphia, during the months of January and February 
last, in the course of the author's ordinary pulpit minis- 
trations. Their publication has been solicited by many 
persons, of different denominations, who listened to them 
when delivered. They are given to the public in the 
hope that they may be of service to those who may favor 
them with a serious perusal. The subject is one which 
ought to command attention in these solemn times. It 
is here treated with a view to elicit a clearer understand- 
ing of the Savior's meaning in this parable. The inter- 
pretation given differs from that commonly entertained ; 
but the grounds on which it rests appear to the writer suffi- 
ciently firm and conclusive to satisfy him of the truthful- 
ness of its leading features, and of its claims to be received 
as an integral part of the great revelation of God. The 
light that has been followed is that of a solid and straight- 
forward exegesis, unswayed by theories or mere human au- 
thorities. The results reached are believed to be in all 



4 PREFACE. 

respects in perfect harmony with the Scriptures generally, 
and in no way in conflict with the analogy of faith. To 
that Divine Master in whose service these Discourses have 
been prepared, they are also humbly and devoutly dedi- 
cated, with the prayer that His blessing may be upon them 
and upon those who read them, and that their publication 
may be to His praise, and contribute to prepare many for 
His glorious appearing and kingdom. 
Philadelphia, March, 1862. 

P. S. — The Sermon appended to these Discourses is very 
closely related to them in subject-matter, though written 
and delivered at an earlier period. It may be considered 
a part of the exposition of the same general subject, 
though founded on other portions of Sacred Scripture. It 
is given in the same service, and with the same intent and 
prayer, as the Discourses with which it appears. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



FIEST DISCOURSE. 

PAGES 

THE SUBJECT PROPOSED ADJUSTMENT OF THE PICTURE 

CHRIST THE BRIDEGROOM — "THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEn" — 

who are the virgins — a portrait op the church 

difference between the two classes the tarrying 

of the bridegroom mistakes about the time of 

Christ's return — answer to the scoffs based upon 

THEM 7-36 

SECOND DISCOURSE. 

THE drowsiness OF THE VIRGINS — THE DIFFERENT VIEWS 
OF IT WHAT IT REPRESENTS TRACED THROUGH THE BIS- 
TORT OF THE CHURCH — THE MIDNIGHT CRT — ITS QUICKEN- 
ING EFFECT THE TRIMMING OF THE LAMPS THE DIS- 
COVERIES WHICH SHALL BE MADE BT CHRISTIANS WHEN 

THE MOMENT OF CHRIST's RETURN ARRIVES AN APPEAL 

UPON THE SUBJECT 37-59 

THIRD DISCOURSE. 

CONTRAST BETWEEN THE FIRST AND LAST PARTS OF THIS 

PARABLE — THE DEFICIENCT OF THE FOOLISH VIRGINS HOW 

IT WAS PROPOSED TO REMEDT IT — THE FOLLT OF TRUST- 
ING TO THE GOODNESS OR INTERCESSIONS OF OTHERS IN 
MATTERS OF SALVATION — THE ADVICE GIVEN TO THE FOOL- 
ISH VIRGINS THE FREE AND ABUNDANT PROVISIONS OF 

GRACE , 60-80 

1* 6 



CONTENTS. 



rOUKTH DISCOUESE. 

PAGES 
THE CRISIS OF THIS PARABLE — THE COMING AGAIN OF CHRIST 
THE GREAT HOPE OF THE CHURCH — THE OBJECT AND SUR- 
ROUNDINGS OF THAT EVENT READINESS FOR IT — THE MAR- 
RIAGE-FEAST 81-104 



FIFTH DISCOUESE. 



THE FATE OF THE FOOLISH VIRGINS COMMON IMPRESSIONS 

REFUTED — THEY WERE NOT LOST — AUTHORITIES QUOTED 

A SURVEY OF FACTS BEARING UPON THE PROPER EXPLANA- 
TION — DIFFERENT CLASSES OF THE SAVED "CHURCH OF 

THE first-born" — SOME "SAVED" WITH " LOSS" WHOLE 

CASE OF THE FOOLISH VIRGINS REVIEWED NO ONE SAFE 

WITHOUT AIMING AT THE HIGHEST HONORS 105-127 

SIXTH DISCOUESE. 

THE APPLICATION DUTY OF WATCHFULNESS — THE OBJECT TO 

WHICH IT IS TO BE DIRECTED WHAT IS IMPLIED IN IT 

GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE LESSONS INCULCATED BY THIS 
PARABLE — CONCLUSION 12&-154 

APPENDIX— A SEEMON. 

THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS ITS REALITY — ITS NATURE 

THE SAME AS THAT OF CHRIST — NOT TO BE USURPED IN 

THIS LIFE — REFLECTIONS ON THE SUBJECT — "REMARKS ON 

ISAIAH XXXII. 1" 155-189 



THE 



^mMt 0f ih Wix^m. 



IN SIX DISCOURSES. 



|irst §im\mt 



THE SUBJECT PKOPOSED — ADJUSTMENT OF THE PICTURE CHBIST 

THE BRIDEGROOM "THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN" WHO ARE 

THE VIRGINS — A PORTRAIT OF THE CHURCH DIFFERENCE 

BETWEEN THE TWO CLASSES — THE TARRYING OF THE BRIDE- 
GROOM MISTAKES ABOUT THE TIME OF CHRIST's RETURN — 

ANSWER TO THE SCOFFS BASED UPON THEM. 



•' Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten vir- 
gins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bride- 
groom," &c. — Matt. xxv. 1-13. 

We have in these words one of the Savior's 
most interesting and impressive parables. It was 
spoken on Mount Olivet, but a few days before his 
death. I call attention to it, at this time, with a 
view to devote a few Sabbath evenings to its more 
particular exposition. It is not a neglected portion 
of revelation. From Augustine and Luther down 
to the present, many have spoken and written upon 
it. Books and commentaries for its explanation are 



8 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

not few. It has seemed to me, however, that it is 
not understood as it ought to be. It also touches 
upon fields of doctrine, experience, and hope concern- 
ing which the popular mind needs more instruction 
than it receives. I have, therefore, imposed upon 
myself the task of re-stating its import, and of pro- 
ducing a fresh account of its principal teachings 
and contents. Should I even fail to establish the 
conclusions which the terms and implications of the 
parable appear to me to require, the cause of truth 
may nevertheless be the gainer by a reopening of the 
questions involved, and a resurvey of the field. 

The material circumstances of this parable pre- 
sent an Oriental wedding-scene, such as was fre- 
quent in those days.* It has been debated whether 
it describes the bridegroom's going to receive his 
bride, or whether it be the larger and more joyous 
procession of his return with her to his own house. 
It most likely includes both. Some of the most 
valuable versions of the New Testament specify it as 
the latter. t The narrative itself makes the pro- 
cession terminate in the house of the bridegroom. 

It has also been made a question whether the 
virgins here spoken of were the attendants of the 
bride, waiting with her at, or going forth with, her 
from, her father's house, or young women of the 
neighborhood, who were to join the procession as 

* See 1 Maccabees ix. 37. 

f The Syriac, the Vulgate, the Coptic, the Cranmer Bible, 
Van Ess, Alioli, Knapp, and three of the MSS., all read "Bride- 
groom and the Bride.'^ 



FIEST DISCOUESE. 9 

soon as it reached them, and who were, therefore, 
obliged to wait at some convenient station until that 
time. But it matters very little how we decide this 
point. The first would seem to be the more natural ; 
and the last would agree very satisfactorily with the 
things meant to be represented. Perhaps the Savior's 
silence respecting this particular was intended to leave 
the mind of the hearer free to take in both suppositions 
and to interpret the parable as if both were true. 

There is no question, however, that the Bride- 
groom is Jesus Christ. To this all interpreters 
agree. There are many other passages of Scrip- 
ture in which he is so represented. David, and 
Solomon, and Isaiah, and John the Baptist, and the 
apostles, have all referred to him under this interest- 
ing figure. His Bride is the Church, to which he 
has given his promise, and to which he has be- 
trothed himself for a blessed and eternal union. 
Hosea beautifully represents him as coming to his 
believing people, and saying to each, " I will be- 
troth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee 
unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in 
loving-kindness, and in mercies. I will even be- 
troth thee unto me in faithfulness : and thou shalt 
know the Lord." (Hosea ii. 19, 20.) This engage- 
ment he has made with all his Church, in the pro- 
mises and ordinances of his gospel, on condition that 
each shall be ready when he comes. 

The time for the fulfilment of these engagements 
is the period of his return to the earth. It usu- 
ally requires two visits to effect a marriage, — the 



10 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

one in whicti the proposal is made and the pre- 
liminaries arranged, and the other in which the 
marriage actually takes place. So Christ comes 
twice to the Church. The visit in which he made 
the proposal and arranged all the preliminary re- 
quisites is long past, and is all presupposed in the 
parable before us. The other is yet future, when he 
will come to receive his people, and to convey them 
to the place which he has gone to prepare for them, 
that they may be ever with him. 

The subject of this parable plainly is, the Church, — 
the congregation of believers, — with reference to the 
experiences and qualifications necessary to secure 
the high honors of the world to come. It refers to 
a state of things preceding the second advent of 
Christ and having special regard to that great 
event. It is ^Hhe kingdom of heaven'' which is 
meant to be illustrated, — not, indeed, in every aspect 
in which it is viewed in the Scriptures, but in the 
condition in which it is found in the times anterior 
to Christ's return, and the estate of its subjects with 
respect to that return. Properly, '' the kingdom of 
heaven" embraces all that the gospel proposes, both 
in its means and in its end, whether in this world or 
in that which is to come. It includes all the pro- 
visions of grace, the whole economy of administra- 
tions by which salvation is conveyed to us, the 
experiences which it works in us, the system of re- 
medial appliances under which it brings us, and all 
the rewards and glories in which Christ's media- 
torial dealings are to eventuate. It is the most 



FIRST DISCOUESE. 11 

compreliensive conception contained in any one 
phrase in the entire word of God. It sometimes 
embraces more, and sometimes less, as the kingdom 
in its fuller sense, or particular sections or phases 
of it, are the subject of remark. In the parables it 
is generally used with reference to the Christian 
State, in which Christ is king and the saints are his 
subjects; in which laws of government are enacted, 
and proper officers appointed for their explanation 
and execution; and which consists in Cod's adminis- 
trations in and over a class of people united under 
one Head, distinguished from all other orders of 
men, and on their way to a perfect and eternal 
empire, to be more fully manifested hereafter. 

It is called the kingdom of heaven, in distinction 
from earthly empires or confederations. Its sub- 
jects are born from on high, and have a celestial 
citizenship. It originates entirely from above, and 
has its head and centre in a celestial King, although 
located upon earth. The word, laws, and ordinances 
of it are all from heaven. There is also some re- 
semblance between it and heaven. It embraces 
many heavenly elements. It is also very near 
to heaven, — the next thing to it, the suburbs of 
it, — and includes whatever upon earth is most 
heavenly. And it is this kingdom, as made up of 
purified souls hoping, looking, and waiting for the 
coming of their Lord to complete their bliss, which 
the Savior has here set before us.* 

* "The kingdom of heaven is the body of believers in Qhrist ; 
who are brought, by renovation by the Spirit, into the relation 



12 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

It has been doubted by some whether the ten 
virgins in this parable represent the whole Church 
of Christ, or only that portion of it which shall be 
found on the earth at his coming. It seems to me 
that the latter is the proper acceptation, without, 
however, entirely excluding the former. All must 
agree that the parable relates particularly to " the 
last times," which include, in general, the entire space 
between Christ's ascension and second coming, but 
more especially that portion of it lying immediately 
before the second advent. It was in answer to ques- 
tions concerning the Savior's second coming and the 
end of the world, that it was given. (Matt. xxiv. 3.)* 



of children and heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; in 
■whom, therefore, he dwells by his Spirit, and of whom such as 
have died are at his second advent to come with him, and be 
invested with authority as priests and kings, and reign with him 
over the living nations of the earth, through their endless gene- 
rations. It is this kingdom, in some of its stages or character- 
istics, that a chief part of the parables are employed to illustrate." 
— Theol. and Lit. Journal, vii. 242. 

* For an explanation of this chapter, see my Last Times, First 
Lecture. The following are Dean Alford's remarks upon the 
subject: — "The question was concerning the time, and the sign 
of these things happening, viz. : the overthrow of the temple and 
desolation of Judea, with which, in the then idea of the apostles, 
our Lord's coming and the end of the world were connected. 
Against this mistake he warns them, vv. 6, 14, Luke v. 24, and 
also in the two first parables in our chapter xxv. For the under- 
standing of this necessarily difficult prophetic discourse, it must 
be borne in mind that the whole is spoken in the pregnant lan- 
guage of prophecy, in which various fulfilments are involved. 
(1.) The view of the Jewish Church and its fortunes, as repre- 
senting the Christian Church and its history, is one key to the inter- 



FIEST DISCOURSE. 13 

It is part of a discourse which is mostly taken up with 
an account of the last things. The whole context is 
engrossed with the signs and circumstances of the 
end of the present order. And the parable begins 
with the remark that '' Then' — at that time — the 
kingdom of heaven shall be like unto these ten vir- 
gins. It seems also to be implied in the narrative 
that these virgins were but one company in a grand 
procession made up of many similar companies, — 



pretation of this chapter. Two parallel interpretations run through 
the former part as far as ver. 28 ; the destruction of Jerusalem 
and the final judgment being both enwrapped in the words, but 
the former, in this part of the chapter, predominating. Even in 
this part, however, we cannot tell how applicable the warnings 
given may be to the events of the last times, in which, appa- 
rently, Jerusalem is again to play so distinguished a part. From 
verse 28 the lesser subject begins to be swallowed up by the 
greater, and our Lord's second coming to be the predominant 
theme, with, however, certain hints thrown back as it were at the 
event which was immediately in question, till, in the latter part 
of the chapter and the whole of the next, the second advent, and, at 
last, the final judgment ensuing on it, are the subjects. (2.) Another 
weighty matter for the understanding of this prophecy is, that 
(see Mark xiii. 32) any obscurity or concealment concerning the 
time of the Lord's second coming must be attributed to the right 
cause, which we know from his own mouth to be, that the divine 
Speaker himself, in his humiliation, did not know the day nor the 
hour. All that he had heard of the Father, he made known unto 
his disciples, (John xv. 15;) but that which the Father kept in 
his own power (Acts i. 7) he did not in his abased humanity 
know. He told them the attendant circumstances of his coming. 
He gave them enough to guard them from error in supposing the 
day to be close at hand, and from carelessness in not expecting 
it as near." — Greek Testament, Matt. xxiv. 3. See also GresweWs 
Parables, v. 197-443. 



14 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

the last to fall in before the place for the feast was 
reached. 

"Whilst in general, therefore, they may be taken 
as representing the Church universal, they stand more 
particularly for that portion of it coming last before 
the great marriage of the Lamb. It would seem as 
if Christ would have us contemplate the Church of 
each age as a company of virgins, each in its turn 
falling in to fill out the great concourse of the re- 
deemed on their way to be at once the attendants 
and the Bride of their Lord. Those who lived in 
former ages and died in true faith fall in first ; for 
*' we which are alive and remain to the coming of the 
Lord shall not go before them which are asleep ; . . . 
the dead in Christ shall rise first." (1 Thess. iv. 15, 
16.) The stress of this parable must, therefore, be 
taken as falling upon those last days immediately 
preceding the second advent, but not in such a way 
as to exclude a general reference to the universal 
Church of all ages. The Church is essentially one 
in all periods and departments, just as the anatomy 
or physiology of one man is essentially that of all 
men in all time. That which properly describes it 
in one age must also in a general way describe it 
in ev^ry age. And in some sense, as Bengel well 
observes, ''Each generation which lives at this or 
that time occupies, during that period of their life, 
the place of those who are to live at the time of the 
coming of the Lord."* 



* Gnomon, 1 Thess. iv. 15. 



FIRST DISCOUESE. 15 

*' Then shall the kingdom of heaven he likened unto ten virgins, 
which took their lamps and went forth to meet the Brio 



Let me ask you, then, to look for a moment at the 
representation which the Savior here gives of his 
Church. 

First, it is a company of virgins ; that is, it is 
made up of a community of people who are chaste 
and pure, beautiful and loving, — of people with a 
pure faith, beautified with grace, and knowing nothing 
of the unclean loves of 'idolatry and wickedness. If 
ever they were tempted to spiritual harlotry, they 
are now thoroughly purged from all such unholinesses. 
And if they are not wholly cleansed in fact, they cer- 
tainly are by profession, and must become so in 
reality before they can be rated as the true virgins 
of faith. 

In the next place, these virgins are all betrothed, 
— under engagements to one who will presently come 
to claim them as his Bride. They have pledged their 
deepest and purest affections to the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Abjuring all others, they have plighted to be his, and 
to be faithful to him. In the solemn services and 
sacraments of his house, they have acknowledged 
him as rightfully entitled to their affections, and 
given out before God and angels that they have 
acceded to his gracious proposals, and stand obligated 
to him, as their Lord, to be ready to go with him 
whenever he shall demand them. And whosoever 
is in any way unfaithful to these engagements does 
but play the harlot, and is no longer one of the 



16 THE PAEABLE OF THE VIEaiNS. 

chaste virgins whom the Savior will accept and re- 
ceive. 

Still another feature in the case of these virgins 
is, that they all had turned their backs upon the 
world, and gone forth to meet the Bridegroom. 
Christ has given promise to his Church to return 
very soon to fulfil all his engagements with it. 
When he last was present with his people, he said as 
he left them, "Let not your heart be troubled. I 
go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and 
prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive 
you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be 
also." And even after his departure, he sent word 
back, "Surely, I come quickly: Amen." (John xiv. 
1-3 ; Bev. xxii. 20.) As the result of these promises, 
it is one distinguishing mark of his people, that, as 
they become betrothed to him, they are at once led 
to look out for his return, and to be concerned every 
day to be ready for a speedy fulfilment of his words. 
Thus Simeon of old was waiting for the consolation 
of Israel. (Luke ii. 25.) Hence says the Apostle 
Paul, in the name of the Christians of his time, 
" Our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we 
look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." (Phil, 
iii. 20.) He also commends those of his brethren 
who " come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming 
of our Lord Jesus Christ," (1 Cor. i. 7,) and presents 
it as the whole office of the gospel to teach us to 
deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live 
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil 
world, looking for that blessed hope, — the glorious 



FIRST DISCOURSE. 17 

appearing of the great God, even our Savior Jesus 
Christ. (Titus ii. 12, 13.) A condition of waiting, 
looking, watching, expecting, hoping, anticipating, 
desiring, and hastening to join the Savior on his 
return, is everywhere spoken of as a characteristic 
attitude of the true people of God ; whilst deficiency 
and weakness in this spirit of going forth to meet 
him is continually put down as a great diminution 
of the vitality of one's faith, and as a damaging blot 
upon one's fitness for that glorious event. It would 
seem, from the way in which the Scriptures speak of 
the matter, as if all the living powers of piety were 
linked with this condition of mind and spirit, and as 
if all the high blessings of ultimate glorification with 
Christ were reserved exclusively for those who put 
themselves in the posture of looking for and loving 
his appearing. " Christ was once offered to bear the 
sins of many ; and unto them that look for him shall 
he appear the second time, without sin, unto sal- 
vation." (Heb. ix. 28.) ''There is laid up a crown 
of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, 
shall give . . . unto all them that love his appearing." 
(2 Tim. iv. 8.) Hence, says a very earnest and 
spiritual-minded commentator on this parable, " the 
Church and people of God, after they are truly 
espoused to Christ, and made in any measure ready 
for Christ, are no more of this world, but look out 
of it, and verily expect the second coming and glo- 
rious appearing of Christ."* 



* Shepard on the Ten Virgins, p. 139 

2* 



18 THE PAEABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

It is also to be noted that these virgins took lamps 
with them, partly to meet the necessities of the case, 
— for such processions occurred only in the night, — 
and partly to meet the requirements of a custom 
which added greatly to the grandeur of the occasion. 
There have been many sharp words as to what 
these lamps were intended to denote. Some insist 
that they represent hearts and spiritual graces. I 
can find no authority for this in Scripture. The 
taking of our hearts and particular endowments also 
seems to me not to be sufficiently distinguishing to 
answer to that by which these virgins so conspi- 
cuously witnessed that they had been called to the 
wedding and meant to go. Whether a man be a 
child of God or not, he never fails to take with him 
his heart, and whatever gifts may appertain to him. 
These lamps were something distinguishing. They 
were the most prominent and manifest marks by 
which their bearers exhibited their distinctness from 
all others, and evinced what they were about. They 
were their particular external tokens as invited 
guests. The Scriptures also tell us that ''he that 
trusteth in his own heart is a fool." (Prov. xxviii. 
26.) Man needs a higher and better illumination 
than can come from such a source. The only proper 
spiritual lamp of which I know is that of which 
the Psalmist speaks, when he says, "Thy word is 
a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." 
(Ps. cxix. 105 ; also Prov. vi. 23.) And whosoever 
would make his way to the marriage of the Lamb, 
must take that ''word," and appropriate well its 



FIRST DISCOUESE. 19 

blessed revelations, as his most distinguishing pos- 
session and preparation for a place at the glorious 
banquet. Nor is that ^' word" to be heard, read, and 
learned only : it needs to be professed and lived. To 
take it, is not only to handle it externally or intel- 
lectually, but inwardly and practically to digest it, — 
to have it incorporated with our being, so as to be 
the bearers of it in our entire character, words, and 
works. Hence also the churches are called candle- 
sticks and lamp'hearers. The Savior says, '' The 
seven candlesticks are the seven churches." (Rev. 
i. 20.) Christians are ''the light of the world." 
(Matt. V. 14.) The Church is ''the pillar of the 
truth." (1 Tim. iii. 15.) All the people of God, 
therefore, to be such, must be lamp-bearers ; and the 
lamp they must bear is the lamp of truth, the word 
of God, professed with the lips, living in the heart, 
and manifested in all the life. 

The taking of these lamps, then, points us directly 
to the Church, and to whatever is implied in becoming 
a real member of the same.* It is only as we become 
identified with the Church that we become part of 
that "pillar" or "stand" which bears the lamp and 
light of "the truth as it is in Jesus." He who has 
not confessed Christ before men, who has never been 
baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and 
Spirit, who has never joined in the holy supper to 

* So Greswell, " The possession of a lamp is the possession of 
•whatever is necessary to constitute a member of the Church, and 
therefore to the external profession of Christianity." — Parables, 



20 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

eat and drink in memory of its Author at the common 
table of the saints, and who refuses to be known as 
one of the household and family of the confessors of 
the gospel of Jesus according to established order, 
has not yet begun to equip himself to go forth to 
meet the bridegroom. Not for one moment dare I 
consent to that separatism and individualism which 
sets up against the regularly-organized churches 
and makes each man his own Church and his own 
minister. It is, in some sense, to undertake to go to 
the marriage without a lamp. 

And what if there be much deadness, and ignorance, 
and deficiency connected with many in the regular 
churches ? What if the professions of many be 
nothing but empty lamps, whilst many others have 
not foresight and consideration enough to be ade- 
quately provided for the emergencies of their posi- 
tion ? That certainly cannot excuse us for abandoning 
Christ's word and appointments to set up for ourselves 
according to our individual whims. The wise virgins 
had no right to refuse to take their lamps because 
the others had such a poor supply of oil, nor yet to 
separate from their company because they were 
foolish. No : Moses' seat still claims reverence 
from Israel, though filled by " scribes, Pharisees, 
hypocrites." (Matt, xxiii. 2.) Christ's word and 
ordinances still remain his, though touched by many 
a polluted and unworthy hand. Gold is still gold, 
though it be hung upon a harlot's neck. And people 
need to be cautioned as to how they decry regular 
Church-connections, or urge separation from them, or 



FIRST DISCOURSE. 21 

refuse communion in them, lest they be found under- 
taking to judge before the time, and setting them- 
selves to hew down the very " pillar and ground of 
the truth," (1 Tim. iii. 16,) to which they themselves 
are indebted for the means of that enlightenment 
which they enjoy, and without which none of us 
would ever have been brought to know God. There 
may, indeed, be great churchliness without Chris- 
tianity ; but I know of no Christianity without some- 
thing of churchliness, both to beget it in the first 
place, and to nourish and sustain it after it is be- 
gotten. A very able commentator has remarked 
that " in the nature of things it is impossible that 
any can become or continue a Christian without con- 
forming externally, at least, to the profession of 
Christianity, in whatever that conformity consists."* 
It is, at any rate, worthy of careful note, that in this 
picture of Christ's acknowledged people every one 
has the lamp of public profession, and that in the 
regular way of established custom and order. 

But in their lamps they also took oil. This is 
true of the whole ten. Even those who so sadly 
failed in the end did not go with empty lamps. It 
is, indeed, said that they 'Hook no oil with them;" 
but that refers to oil additional to what the lamps 
contained. Other parts of the record make it clear 
that they had oil in their lamps, the same as their 
wiser companions. This is presupposed in the very 
fact of their having lamps at all, which must have 

* Greswell, Parables, v. 498. 



22 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

been a mere encumbrance without oil. The same is also 
implied in the fact that they actually " went forth to 
meet the Bridegroom." This they did at nightfall, 
when lamps were needed, and with the expectation 
of his speedy arrival, when their lamps had to be 
burning. But the point is rendered still clearer by 
the statement of the eighth verse, that their lamps, 
by the time the Bridegroom came, had nearly burned 
out. They rise and say, "Our lamps are gone out." 
This is a plain intimation that they had been burning, 
and, if once burning, then also once supplied with oil. 
Nay, according to the reading of the margin, and the 
literal meaning of the original, their lamps were even 
then still burning. They were only 'Agoing out^^ 
This, then, proves unmistakably that all these virgins 
had oil in their lamps, and had those lamps lit and 
burning. Indeed, if I am at all correct as to what 
the lamps denote, it cannot be otherwise but that 
all, as all took lamps, must have been possessors of 
that sacred unction without which they never could 
have had light, or been candlesticks of the truth. 

From this, therefore, I conclude that this parable 
has nothing to do with hypocrites, tares, or wicked 
ones. It includes none but real members of the real 



* The word a^evvxxvrai does not mean entirely extinguished, but 
simply in process of becoming so. The more literal reading given 
in the margin renders it *^^ are going out." Bengel translates it 
^^ are being extinguished;" so also Dean Alford. Greswell says, 
*' The meaning is, that their lamps had begun to be extinguished, 
but were not quite extinct ; that they had begun to go out, but 
were not yet gone." — Parables, v. 469. 



FIRST DISCOURSE. 23 

Church of Christ; that is, real subjects of converting 
grace. Oil is the fixed symbol of the Holy Spirit.* 
It was used under the old dispensation in token of 
consecration to the highest and holiest offices on 
earth. To have oil in our lamps, then, as Christian 
confessors, is to be anointed and consecrated by the 
Holy Spirit, — to have ''the unction of the Holy One." 
As all these virgins had oil in their lamps, and so 
had real substance in their profession, they all had 
'' tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made par- 
takers of the Holy Ghost." They were all true 
''virgins," and subjects of a genuine work of grace. 
They were all alike anxious to meet the Bridegroom 
and to partake of the marriage. And the love, faith, 
and sincerity evinced by the one class do not appear 
to have been less or more than in the other. They 
all had lamps. Each lamp was also amply supplied 
for the time. And all went forth with their torches 
lit and burning. But they were not all alike in all 
respects. 

" Five were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish 
took their lamps, and took no oil with them ;" 

That is, they took no more than their lamps would 
contain. 

" But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps." 

These " vessels" I take to be whatever receptivities 



* See Ex. xxx. 22, 23 ; Lev. viii. 12 ; Zech. iv. 2, 12 ; Acts x. 
38; Heb. i. 9. 



24 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

there may be in man for a deeper and higher con- 
secration than that which pertains to the ordinary 
Christian profession.* The difference, therefore, be- 
tween the wise and foolish was, that the wise laid in 
beyond and above what the case seemed to require, 
and that to the utmost possible measure, whilst the 
others contented themselves with what appeared to 
be the ordinary necessities of the case. It sets forth 
the fact that not all true Christians are equally emi- 
nent in their attainments and sanctification. There 
are some who never get beyond the rudiments of 
Christian life. They are virgins, and witness a good 
confession, and have true love of Cod in their hearts ; 
but their religious principles are not so deep-laid, 
their calculations of the cost are not so minute, their 
consecration to Christ and his cause is not so pro- 
found, and their diligence and exertions are not so 
vigorous nor sustained from springs so deep and 
ample, as in some other cases. They build upon the 
true foundation; but they build ''wood, hay, and 
stubble," which will not stand the trial of fire. It 
requires eminent saintship to attain to the high 
honors of ''the Church of the first-born." It re- 
quires more, even, than chaste virginity of cha- 
racter and sincerity of faith and profession. To 
all this there must be added a wise discreetness, 
which never rests whilst there are positions of greater 
excellence and profounder consecration to be attained, 
and which, like Paul, never counts itself to have ap- 

* So Stier, Olshausen, Valenti, Poiret, and Bengel. 



FIEST DISCOURSE. 25 

prehended, but forgets the things which are behind, 
and reaches forth unto those things which are before, 
ever pressing toward sublimer and sublimer marks 
of our high calling of God in Christ Jesus. For this 
diligent, untiring perseverance the wise virgins had 
provided. They were of those who count all things 
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, 
and are willing to suffer the loss of all that they may 
be found in him, and would cheerfully share even his 
great sufferings if by any means they may attain 
unto the resurrection from among the dead. This 
was their wisdom. And the high resolve and deep- 
seated consecration which bring about such a sur- 
render to God's will and service, is the oil which they 
took in their vessels additional to what was in their 
lamps. The five unwise ones lacked in this fulness 
and all-sacrificing depth of devotion. They had not 
calculated so seriously in these matters. Sincerely 
as they had moved, and devoutly as they desired, to 
meet Him whom they loved, they were content with 
much humbler measures of grace and consecration. 
This was their want of prudence, and the cause of 
their ultimate exclusion from the marriage. And of 
these two classes even real Christians are composed, 
as we shall more particularly see hereafter. 

" The Bridegroom tarried." 

This little sentence stretches through many ages. 
It also presents a very remarkable point in this 
parable. It asserts that the Bridegroom was much 
slower in coming than the virgins anticipated. He 



26 THE PAEABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

"tarried." They had to wait, and wait, and wait, 
before he came. This has been true of the people of 
God in every age. "When Eve first took into her arms 
the first-born of human kind, she thought that now 
the promised Eedeemer had come to crush the ser- 
pent and restore lost Paradise. *' I have gotten him," 
was her joyous exclamation ; '^ I have gotten him, — 
the man, the one that was to come." (Gen. iv. 1.) But 
it was only a murderer she had gotten. The coming 
of the promised One was still far away. When 
Simeon took the infant Savior in his arms, he said, 
" Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, 
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." (Luke ii. 29, 
30.) He supposed that the time for the fulfilment of 
all the promises had arrived ; but it was only the pre- 
cursory advent that he had lived to see. The time for 
the great consummation was still far ofi" in the distant 
ages. The early Christians certainly contemplated 
the Savior's coming as much nearer than it actually 
was. Many of them expected to see in their day the 
standard of his glory unfurled in the heavens, and 
trusted that his revelation was to occur whilst many 
of them still lived. Paul speaks of himself and his 
brethren as likely to be among " them that are alive 
and remain unto the coming of the Lord." (1 Thess. 
iv. 17.) He tells the Corinthians that his calculation 
was that they should '' not all sleep" before the time 
would come in which 'Hhe last trump" would sound, 
and they ''be changed." (1 Cor. xv. 51, 52.) And 
to the Hebrews he wrote, '' Yet a little while, and he 
that shall come will come, and will not tarry." (Heb. 



FIEST DISCOURSE. 2*^ 

X. 37.) James also wrote " to the twelve tribes whicli 
are scattered abroad, . . . stablish your hearts ; for 
the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." (James v. 8.) 
Peter wrote to the saints in Pontus, Galatia, Cappa- 
docia, Asia, and Bithynia, ''The end of all things is 
at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto 
prayer." (1 Peter iv. 7.) John wrote, "Little chil- 
dren, it is the last time; and as ye have heard that 
antichrist shall come, even now are there many anti- 
christs ; whereby we know that it is the last time." 
(1 John ii. 18.) And yet those apostolic days all 
passed away, and still ''the Bridegroom tarried." 
There are, indeed, hints and intimations in the apos- 
tolic writings that the Savior's coming was not so 
near as many anticipated. It has been very properly 
remarked that " the same St. Paul who addressed the 
Thessalonians in his first Epistle as if they, yet alive, 
were to behold the coming of Christ, in his second 
warns them that his words were meant to justify no 
such certainty, inasmuch as that the day of Christ 
was to be preceded by a great and conspicuous apos- 
tasy. The same St. James who had spoken of the 
same coming as drawing nigh, introduces his assertion 
with exhortations of endurance, and illustrations 
drawn from the ' long patience' of the husbandman 
waiting for the fruit of the earth. The same St. 
Peter who in his first Epistle contemplates the end 
of all things at hand, and bids Christians hope for the 
* grace to be brought at the revelation of Christ,' in 
his second obviates objections to the tardy march of 
the expected Judge, riot by denying the fact, but by 



28 THE PAEABLE OF THE VIEGINS. 

reminding his reader tliat the Lord is not slack as 
some men count slackness, but long-suffering to us- 
ward, and that the cycles of his providence are framed 
upon a scale in which one day is as a thousand years, 
and a thousand years as one day. And the same 
book of Kevelation which promises the rapid return 
of Christ, unfolds an antecedent series of events, pro- 
bably to occupy long-revolving ages."* But, with all 
that, none of the first Christians ever supposed that 
the event for which they waited and hoped with so 
much anxiety would be delayed to this late day. 

So, also, the companions and immediate successors 
of the apostles confidently expected that Christ 
would come in their day. About one hundred years 
after Christ, Clement wrote, " Let us every hour 
expect the kingdom of God." Barnabas also, about 
the same period, declared, " The day of the Lord is 
at hand, in which all things shall be destroyed, 
together with the wicked one." Ignatius, of the 
same age, wrote to the Ephesians, saying, " The last 
times are come upon us: let us, therefore, be very 
reverent, and fear." But the age of the apostolic 
fathers also passed, and still "the Bridegroom tar- 
ried/' 

Cyprian wrote, in the third century, ''Let us 
ever, in anxiety and cautiousness, be awaiting the 
sudden advent of the Lord. . . . The kingdom of God 
has begun to he nigh at hand.'' Hippolytus ex- 
pected it about the end of the fourth or fifth cen- 

* Archer Butler's Sermon on The Uncertainty of Christ's Coming. 



FIRST DISCOURSE. 29 

tury. So also Lactantius, and Ambrose, and Chry- 
sostom, and Hilary, and Jerome, and Augustine. 
But the fourth, and fifth, and sixth, and seventh, 
and tenth, and additional centuries passed, and still 
"the Bridegroom tarried." 

With the Keformation these expectations of the 
speedy coming of the Savior were revived with the 
revived Church. Savonarola spoke of the nearness 
of Christ's coming to take the kingdom. Luther 
said, '' I ever keep it before me, and I am satisfied that 
the last day must be before the door; for the signs 
predicted by Christ and the Apostles Peter and Paul 
have all now been fulfilled : the trees put forth, the 
Scriptures are green and blooming. That we cannot 
know the day, matters not ; some one else may point 
it out: things are certainly near their end." Melanc- 
thon said, ''We may be sure that this aged world is 
not far from its end." Leo Juda said, '' The time of 
his glorious last coming to judge all the world, both 
quick and dead, is now already nigh at hand." 
Latimer said, ''The last day cannot be far ofi". 
. . . Peradventure it may come in my days, old as 
I am." But the days of the Eeformers also passed, 
and still "the Bridegroom tarried." 

Again, other epochs were specially named. Whis- 
ton computed the time for 1776; Jerieu, for 1785 
Stilling, for 1816 ; Bengel and Wesley, for 1836 
Miller and others, for 1843; Sander, for 1847 
Schmucker, for 1848; and many devout people 
looked to these dates as marking the time in which 
the Bridegroom should come. But all these years 

3* 



30 THE PAKABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

have gone, and yet lie tarries. There are some wLo 
are very confidently expecting him to come in 1862, 
others in 1866, 7, or '8. ^' But of that day and hour 
knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, hut 
my Father only.'' (Matt. xxiv. 36.) He may come 
in one or the other of these years; but it is not 
unlikely that they will all pass and find him still 
tarrying. We certainly cannot be very remote from 
the time ; but it is presumption for any one to under- 
take to tell when it shall be. This, however, we 
know, — that in preaching and hoping that it is near 
at hand, and that any year these heavens may open 
and reveal to us the Son of God, we preach and 
hope as the apostles did, and put ourselves in the 
attitude of the best Christians in the purest periods 
of the Church. 

I know that the facts I have just cited have fur- 
nished infidelity and rationalism a copious fund for 
sarcasm. Skepticism scorns a revelation so indefi- 
nite and liable to mistake on so important a point; 
and there be many even Christian men who are so 
afi'ected by the jeers brought against them from this 
source, that they ignore the whole subject, and find 
no place for it in their studies, their sermons, or 
their hearts. But I learn from it quite a diff'erent 
lesson than that which brands apostles as fanatics 
and the words of my Savior as fables. I find in it a 
proof of the truthfulness of Scripture statements, 
and of the great wisdom of the Author of salvation. 
It proves the truthfulness of xh.Q Scriptures, in that 
they everywhere tell us that it is not for us, nor any 



FIEST DISCOURSE. 31 

man, to know the times or the seasons. It exhibits 
the Savior's unsearchable wisdom in so arranging 
what he has said about the time as to secure the 
same practical effects for every age, without confining 
the promise to any. 

It is one of the objects for which Christ is dealing 
with his people in this world, to teach them hope, 
watchfulness, fidelity, humility, earnest inquiry, and 
reverential awe, — and this in a large degree by 
means of the great and soul-moving theme of his 
return in power and glory to judge the world. Con- 
sider, then, what would be the effect if the hour of 
that return were definitely announced, as compared 
to the peculiar uncertainty in which it is left. I put 
the case in the language of another: — ''If, for ex- 
ample, it be our duty to hope and haste unto this 
glorious epiphany, how is the preservation of this 
hope consistent with a certainty, — and still more a 
certainty of distance? Would not the anxious and 
desiring solicitude that hangs upon the prospect of 
his appearing be suddenly (for all save the single 
generation that was to witness it) chilled into indif- 
ference by knowing it postponed in his own infallible 
announcement? Again: if he would keep us in 
that state of watchfulness which he has himself so 
often and earnestly impressed, is it not to neutral- 
ize his own purpose, to remove the uncertainty 
which alone can make that vigilance necessary ? If, 
too, it be his declared intention to test our fidelity, 
does he not destroy his own avowed test by rendering 
preparation necessary only to those who are apprized 



32 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

of his approaching presence? He desires to keep us 
humble as the sole path of ultimate exaltation. This 
very limitation upon the most awful of all points of 
knowledge is eminently calculated to cherish such a 
temper. Yet he would also habituate us to earnest 
inquiry and a holy curiosity as to his will and move- 
ments : to publish them is to supersede it. And he 
would have us revere and dread even while we trust 
and love him; and this he accomplishes, as in other 
ways, so by shrouding his march in mystery, reveal- 
ing enough to win affection and guide to duty, but 
reserving his deeper purposes for the council-cham- 
ber of the Holy Trinity. ... It is a purposed ob- 
scurity, a most salutary and useful obscurity, a 
wise and merciful denial of knowledge. In this 
matter it is his gracious will that it should be the 
perpetual subject of watchfulness, expectation, con- 
jecture, fear, desire; but no more. To cherish anti- 
cipation, he has permitted gleams of light to cross 
the darkness; to baffle presumption, he has made 
them only gleams. He has harmonized with con- 
summate skill every part of his revelation to pro- 
duce this general result, — now speaking as if a few 
seasons more were to herald the new heavens and 
earth, now as if his days were thousands of years ; at 
one moment whispering into the ear of his disciple, at 
another retreating into the depth of infinite ages. It 
is his purpose thus to live in our faith and hope ; re- 
mote, yet near; pledged to no moment, possible at 
any; worshipped, not with the consternation of a near 
or the indifference of a distant certainty, but with the 



FIRST DISCOUESE. 33 

anxious vigilance that awaits a contingency ever at 
hand. This, the deep devotion of watchfulness, hu- 
mility, and awe, He who knows us best knows to be 
the fittest posture for our spirits : therefore does he 
preserve the salutary suspense that insures it, and 
therefore will he determine his advent to no definite 
day in the calendar of eternity."* Skeptics may 
jeer at it as a weakness of the Scriptures ; I take it 
as an instance of masterly strength. Cold-hearted 
unbelief may laugh at the expenditure of anxiety 
and pains to which Christians at various ages have 
put themselves by supposing that their Lord, in all 
probability, was to come in their day; but I take it 
rather as a thing in some respects to their praise, — 
an evidence of their sympathy with, if not member- 
ship in, that virgin company who took their lamps 
and went out to meet the Bridegroom. Many may 
set it down to their weak judgment and their want 
of skill, — skill in explaining away the words of Scrip- 
ture; but I accept it rather as a thing to their 
credit, — not, indeed, that they were so confident in 
broaching their prophetic arithmetic, but that they 
so thoroughly submitted to be brought to that vivid- 
ness of expectation upon this point to which Christ 
would have us all come, as the most favorable to the 
development of those graces which alone can fit us for 
the kingdom to come. 

I confess, my friends, that I have but little sym- 
pathy with those who are ever harping upon these 

* Butler's Sermons, 1st Ser. pp. 33, 36. 



34 THE PARABLE OF THE VIEGINS. 

chronological mistakes of the people of God in other 
times, and who adduce them as an argument why 
we should let the whole subject alone and have no 
expectation with reference to it. I fear that those 
who thus shrink from all outgoings of anxious desire 
and anticipation of the speedy coming of the Bride- 
groom, and who are so impatient with the subject, 
are not yet in such deep harmony with the sjpirit 
of grace and hope as to render them altogether safe 
if that day were to come upon them in their present 
condition. 

Again to use the words of the eloquent preacher 
already quoted, " Nature, — uncorrupted nature, — 
through all her regions, cries aloud for Him who is 
to rectify her unwilling disorders, to repair her shat- 
tered structures, to restore her oppressed energies, 
to vindicate her voice of conscience, long despised, — 
her sublime testimony to the Creator, so long ques- 
tioned or overlooked. But what is this to the 
demand of grace for the coming of Him who is not 
only the great God, but our Savior? If the whole 
creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain for 
the manifestation of the sons of God, what shall be 
the desires of the sons of God themselves ! What 
shall be their ardor to realize that liberty of the 
children of God, of which such great things are 
spoken ! to behold their own lowliness glorified in 
the glory of the man of Nazareth, their humble 
labors recognized by the approval of a God once 
more manifest in the flesh, their persevering faith vin- 
dicated, their hope consummated, their charity bright- 



FIRST DISCOURSE. 35 

ening into a reward eternal and infinite ! They know 
well the value of that union which identifies the tri- 
umph of the Savior and the saved. They rejoice to 
think that, as a humiliated Redeemer came first to 
point us the path of humiliation, so must a glorified 
Bedeemer point us the path of glory; that the 
Captain of salvation, who bore the cross in front of 
his army of believers, must come to teach them also 
how to wear the crown. Yes : all proclaims and 
demands the return of Christ to the world, — all, but 
the un sanctified heart of man ! There alone no 
voice is heard to welcome the mighty stranger. 
There alone the dawn of this eternal orb is contem- 
plated with hatred, horror, and dismay. Hearts 
that are inured to the world's corruptions, how shall 
they hail an immortality of meekness, simplicity, 
and love ? Spirits habituated to seek unholy ends by 
means yet more unholy, how shall they endure the 
bringing in of an everlasting righteousness ? Those 
whose whole hopes, prospects, and calculations are 
bound up with the fortunes of the world as it is, 
how shall they regard otherwise than with terror 
this awful revolution in the administration of the 
universe, when He who now rules behind a mass of 
permitted evil shall himself personally and visibly 
assume the reins of universal empire?" And those 
who are disposed to sport and jeer at the over-haste 
in the anticipations of the saints in former ages, and 
refer to their miscalculations by way of casting 
odium upon those of similar disposition in the 
present, have reason to suspect that there is yet 



36 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

something wanting in tlieir own souls to fit them 
for the solemn administrations toward which we are 
all hastening. 

Let each one, then, search himself with reference 
to this point, and see to it that there be no secret 
skepticism of heart and no hidden idolatry of self at 
the bottom of this boasted superiority of enlighten- 
ment, and this proud and sport-making indifference 
toward the great subject of the Lord's speedy re- 
turn. If we have not learned to '^ love his appear- 
ing" and are not ready to welcome its speedy arrival, 
depend upon it, there yet remains a great revolution 
to be wrought in us before we are properly attuned 
to the spirit of the New Testament or prepared for 
'' the inheritance of the saints in light." May God 
forgive the unbelief of his professed people, and 
change the hard-heartedness of those who verily deal 
with this subject as if they would rather the world 
should never be redeemed, than that Jesus should 
return to it as he has promised ! 



^tm)i Mmxu. 



THE DROWSINESS OP THE VIRGINS — THE DIFFERENT VIEWS OF IT 

WHAT IT REPRESENTS — TRACED THROUGH THE HISTORY OF THE 
CHURCH — THE MIDNIGHT CRY — ITS QUICKENING EFFECT — THE 

TRIMMING OF THE LAMPS THE DISCOVERIES WHICH SHALL BE 

MADE BY CHRISTIANS WHEN THE MOMENT OF CHRIST'S RETURN 
ARRIVES AN APPEAL UPON THE SUBJECT. 



'< While the Bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. 
And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the Bridegroom 
Cometh ; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, 
and trimmed their lamps," &c. — Matt. xxv. 5-13. 

I COME now to call attention to what befell these 
virgins "while the Bridegroom tarried." The Sa- 
vior gives it in very few words : — 

" They all slumbered and slept." 

What is to be understood by this drowsiness, has 
been variously explained. Some of the fathers took 
it as denoting the sleep of death and the slumber of 
the grave. I cannot so interpret it. The word ren- 
dered " slumber," and which expresses one stage of 
this drowsiness, is from a root which signifies to 
nod;"^ which does not very well describe a death- 
scene, and which is nowhere used in such a con- 
nection. Again, the unfurnished virgins, even after 
being aroused from their sleep, were directed to go 

"5^ vvara^o), from vevo), to nod the head from sleepiness. 
4 37 



38 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

and buy the lacking oil from those who had it to sell, 
and so repair their deficiency; which does not at all 
agree with that fixedness which death is everywhere 
supposed to put upon moral character and condition. 

" Life is the time to serve the Lord, — 
The time to insure the great reward." 

When life is once past, and the Judge has sent 
forth his summons to awake the dead, their time for 
procuring the necessary provisions against that hour 
will be over and gone. Again, if we take this slum- 
bering and sleeping to be death, we must assume 
that there will be no true Christians living on the 
earth when the Lord comes. As " all" the virgins 
slept, so all denoted by the virgins would be dead at 
the time of the Bridegroom's arrival ; which would 
be contrary to many plain declarations of Scripture. 
(1 Cor. XV. 51.) The awaking of these virgins is 
also represented as occurring some little time, at 
least, before the Bridegroom himself comes ; whereas 
the resurrection of the saints from the dead is every- 
where spoken of as contemporaneous with the ad- 
vent. Besides, the whole machinery of the parable 
is disjointed by referring this sleep to death ; the very 
thing which it was meant to enforce upon the living 
is precluded, and the Savior is presented in the ab- 
surd attitude of exhorting living people to be on the 
alert for an event which can come only to the dead. 

Others, again, take this slumbering and sleeping 
to refer to a certain '' carnal security" which is to 
come over the Church of the last times, — at least, " a 
certain acquiescing in the present time and in the 



SECOND DISCOURSE. 39 

present things" whicli shall greatly hinder the neces- 
sary readiness to meet the Lord. That some sense 
of security is involved, I have no doubt, for no one 
ever slumbers or sleeps without some such feeling; 
but that it is a '' carnal security," or a descent from 
proper Christian character to the spirit of the uncon- 
verted world, I cannot allow. No carnal man shall 
ever enter into the kingdom of heaven ; and no con- 
senter to the spirit of this world shall ever go in to 
the marriage of the Lamb. Nor can any such cha- 
racters be accounted virgins of Christ's Church. 
The Scriptures everywhere rate them among the un- 
clean, whose place is without, among the unbelieving, 
sorcerers, and idolaters ; whereas the text speaks only 
of virgins who were at the time waiting for their 
Lord, and one-half of whom entered in to partake of 
the highest honors of the kingdom. And to inter- 
pret the sleep in which Christ finds them at his 
coming as denoting any thing carnal, or the preva- 
lence of a spiritual stupor akin to that of the unre- 
generate, would quite obliterate the distinction be- 
tween nature and grace, and make the parable pro- 
pose a premium for that very negligence and sloth 
which it was meant to rebuke and to supersede by 
untiring watchfulness and fidelity. 

The essence of this slumbering and sleeping I am 
disposed to find in a certain dulling and deadening 
of the Church to the specific subject of the Bride- 
groom's coming.* It was the prospect of his speedy 

* So also Maldonatus and others. 



40 ' THE PARABLE OF THE VIEGINS. 

coming that was the all- animating theme of these 
virgins. It was this that brought them together, 
that led them forth, and that held them for a time in 
high and joyous expectation. And had this deep 
interest and lively anticipation of the Bridegroom's 
coming remained, it certainly would not have been 
said of them either that they "fell a-nodding," or 
that they slept. But the Bridegroom tarried, — not 
really, but with respect to their anticipations. The 
long delay and consequent disappointment served to 
blunt that intense and animating interest with which 
they set out. And the longer he tarried, the more 
distantly was his coming apprehended. Other 
thoughts than those of a speedy meeting of their 
Lord began to steal upon their hearts, and they 
began to make themselves easy upon that subject. 
They had thought so often that they saw the light 
of his approach gleaming in the sky and heard the 
footsteps of his train and the shouts of his attendants 
drawing near, and yet found themselves mistaken, 
that they were no longer moved by such hopes as at 
the beginning. They do not retire from their position 
of waiting. They do not give up the hope of his 
coming. It is only the likelihood of his near approach 
which they surrender. It is simply their once lively 
interest in the subject which they permit to die away. 
They settle down in their places, no longer caring, 
and hoping, and thrilling with anticipation, as once; 
and one and another begins to nod with heaviness, 
until finally they all sink away from their former 
wakefulness and all slumber and sleep. It is not a 



SECOND DISCOUESE. 41 

return to a carnal state; neither is it a mingling and 
acquiescence with the spirit of the world. Their 
places, their virginity, their lamps, their general 
attitude of waiting, all remain the same. They are 
all harmonious, and all have their lamps lit. But 
their enthusiasm on the near advent of their Lord 
has abated. Their expectation has lost its ardor. 
Of course, some of them began to nod sooner than 
others, and the sleep of some was profounder than 
that of others ; but in some degree " they all slum- 
bered and slept." 

And in proportion to this their stupor to the great 
event for which they had gone forth, there was also 
a deleterious influence exerted upon their general 
piety. Though still waiting, it was a very dull and 
stupid sort of waiting. Though virgins, they were 
indulging themselves in a way very hazardous to 
their purity. And though their lamps still burned, 
they had become greatly dimmed meanwhile, and 
needed to be trimmed afresh to be ready for the 
Bridegroom's coming. 

Nor is it difficult to trace the approach of this 
stupor and its gradual settlement upon the Church. 
History speaks with great distinctness upon the sub- 
ject. I have already referred to the joyous eager- 
ness with which the early Christians anticipated the 
speedy return of their Lord. It was their great con- 
solation under all their great sufferings that soon 
Christ would be revealed from heaven to judge their 
enemies, establish his blessed kingdom over all the 
earth, and give reward unto his servants and ever- 

4* 



42- THE PAEABLE OF THE VIEGINS. 

lasting joy to all his true people. All Christendom 
was animated with ''the blessed hope" of ''the glo- 
rious appearing of the great God, even our Savior 
Jesus Christ." It was this that sustained them amid 
persecution, banishment, and poverty, and that made 
them welcome even the blood and fires of martyrdom 
itself. But, as age after age rolled away without 
bringing the expected Lord, interest in the subject 
began to flag, and Christians began to lose their 
original ardor with reference to it. Mosheim tells 
us that the philosophy of the third century proved 
very detrimental to it, introducing, as it did, ways 
of .contemplating it to which the apostles and their 
associates were entire strangers. This celebrated 
historian assures us that the opinion of Christ's 
speedy coming to reign on the earth was, in the 
second century, "diffused over a great part of 
Christendom; that the most eminent doctors af- 
vored it; and that no controversy with them was 
moved by those who [may have] thought otherwise." 
He quotes Tertullian as speaking of it as " the com- 
mon doctrine of the Church." Then, at least, the 
whole body of Christians were at one upon this sub- 
ject. " Down to the times of Origen," says he, " all 
the teachers who were so disposed openly professed 
and taught it. But Origen assailed it fiercely, for 
it was repugnant to his philosophy; and by the 
system of biblical interpretation which he discovered 
he gave a different turn to those texts of Scripture on 
which the patrons of this doctrine most relied. The 
consequence was that it lost its influence with most 



SECO^^D DISCOURSE. 43 

Christians." The virgins began to nod. ^'But a 
little past the middle of this [third] century," he tells 
us, '' Nepos, an Egyptian bishop, endeavored to re- 
vive it and give it currency, by an appropriate 
treatise, which he called a Confutation of the Alle- 
gorists. This book was admired by many in the 
district of Arsinoe, and was thought to confirm the 
visible reign of Christ on earth by the most solid 
arguments. Hence great commotions arose in that 
part of Egypt, and many congregations gladly re- 
sumed their expectation of the future millennium." 
Christendom again lifted up its head, opened its eyes, 
and besran to listen for the comino; of its Lord. "Biit 
these commotions were quieted by Dionysius, the 
Bishop of Alexandria, a pupil of Origen. He held a 
discussion with one Coracion and his followers, in 
which, by his admonitions, arguments, and exhorta- 
tions, he induced them to give up the opinion they 
had derived from the treatise of Nepos."* And the 
virgins dozed again. Presently up rose Methodius, 
the pious Bishop of Tyre, and put forth his Feast of 
the Ten Virgins, and then the earnest ApoUinaris, 
the Bishop of Laodicea, in two Books against Dio- 
nysius. and then the eloquent Lactantius, in his 
Institutes of Divinity, — each in his turn endeavoring 
to awaken the Church to its ancient hopes and inte- 
rest in the return of its Lord ; but the drowsy vir- 
gins barely opened their eyes at their calls, and dozed 
again in still deeper slumbers. And thus, with now 

* See Mosheim's Historical Commentaries, ii. 244-250. 



44 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

and then a half-dreamy spell of wakefulness here and 
there, the Church has been slumbering and sleeping 
with respect to this subject from the times of Origen 
until now. And even at this present there is a 
drowsiness upon Christendom which makes the great 
mass of it think we are but dreaming and talking 
deliriously when we seriously propound the doctrine 
that the Son of God may peradventure come in our 
day ! The Bridegroom tarries, and the virgins nod 
and sleep. 

But, although the virgins thus slumbered and 
slept while the Bridegroom delayed, he does not 
come upon them without some effective pre-intimation 
of it at the time. Though their drowsiness deserved 
badly, yet such is the compassion of Christ for his 
people that he is very lenient towards their infirmi- 
ties, and sends an awakening cry before him to arouse 
the sleepers into readiness. His desire is to have as 
many prepared as possible. Hence 

''At midnight there was a cry made^ Behold, the Bridegroom 
Cometh ; go ye out to meet him." 

Christ's second coming, like his first, is everywhere 
represented as occurring in the night. And the 
literal darkness in which he is to be revealed is but 
the type of a spiritual and moral darkness which will 
then be found enveloping the world and even the 
Church. It is in this midnight that the cry goes 
forth, ''Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!" 

What is meant by this cry, expositors have not 
been agreed. Some think that it is altogether a 
mystery, which shall not be understood until it shall 



SECOND DISCOURSE. 45 

have been made. '^ The shout of the archangel and 
the trump of God," with which Paul says the Lord 
will come, has been referred to as the thing intended. 
This may be; but, as marriage-processions of the 
sort presupposed in this parable were always at- 
tended with trumpeting, shouting, and singing, it 
would seem as if Paul's language had been borrowed 
from this place, and hence would be subject to a like 
■parabolic interpretation. For my own part, I take 
this midnight cry as embracing numerous particulars. 
The Scriptures point us to many ^' signs" which are 
to attend and immediately precede the Savior's 
coming ; and it is the united voice of all these that 
I take to be the cry to which he here refers. Dr. 
Henderson relates that one night, while in the East, 
he was stunned by the noise of a procession, led on 
by a band of musicians playing on tambourines and 
cymbals, which, on inquiry, he learned consisted of a 
Jewish bridegroom accompanied by his young friends. 
And it is not without some such corresponding clamor 
and heralding that Christ's coming is to be preceded 
and attended. 

The first and most literal will be " the cry of the 
word," or such a literal proclaiming of the fact of 
Christ's nearness, as deduced from the prophecies, as 
shall create considerable stir upon the subject. We 
are assured in the book of Daniel (xii. 4) that, as the 
end approaches, ''many shall run to and fro, and 
knowledge [of these mysteries] shall be increased;" 
or, as Luther renders it, " many shall come over it 
and find great understanding," — that is, of these 



46 THE PARABLE OF THE VIEGINS. 

matters, — and thus contribute to awaken the drowsy- 
attention of men to them. John also tells us that, 
in the time of the sounding of the last trumpet, he 
saw an angel flying in mid-heaven, crying, " Fear 
God, and give glory to him ; for the hour of his judg- 
ment is come." (Eev. xiv. 6, 7.) This has been taken 
to indicate that ministers of the gospel — and a large 
and conspicuous body of them — will at that time 
understand the true position of afiairs, and announce, 
as with a trumpet-voice, the speedy coming of Christ 
to establish his throne on the earth, to raise and 
glorify the dead saints, to judge and reward his living 
elect, and to destroy his incorrigible enemies. 

And along with these may also be special messen- 
gers, sent for the particular purpose of notifying men 
that the Lord is at hand, the same as John the Bap- 
tist at the first advent. There are s,undry very im- 
portant predictions respecting the coming of Elijah 
to prepare the way before the Lord, which do not 
seem as yet to have been fulfilled, and which lead 
many to believe, as the fathers did, that that great 
prophet is again to appear in the world, — at any rate, 
among the Jews, — to warn, advise of, and make 
things ready for the coming of " that great and ter- 
rible day of the Lord."* 

* In Malachi iv. 5 we have this promise : — " Behold, I will send 
you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dread- 
ful day of the Lord." In Matt. xvii. 11, Christ himself says, 
" Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things." It has been 
the general opinion of the Church hitherto that these predictions 
remain to be fulfilled in literal reality. That there is a sense in 



SECOND DISCOUESE. 47 

But to " the cry of the word" will be added " the 
cry of the rod,'' or the visitation of nations with great 
and oppressive judgments. Before Christ comes, and 
immediately preceding that event, he tells us himself, 
in plain words, " there shall be . . . upon the earth 
distress of nations, with perplexity; . . . men's hearts 
failing them for fear, and for looking after those 
things which are coming on the earth." (Luke xxi. 
25, 26.) As to the kings of the earth that "set 
themselves," and the rulers that "take counsel to- 
gether against the Lord," "he shall speak unto 
them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore dis- 



which they were fulfilled in John the Baptist, there can be no 
doubt. Mark, in the opening of his Gospel, and the Savior him- 
self, in Matt. xvii. 12, 13, and elsewhere, have settled that point. 
John the Baptist, however, positively denied that he was Elias. 
(John i. 21.) The Savior also speaks of the application of these 
predictions to him as depending upon certain conditions, (Matt. 
xi. 13,) which were not so evidently complied with as to warrant 
us in concluding that the promise of Elijah's coming was abso- 
lutely fulfilled in him. The language of the angel to Zacharias 
concerning John was, that he should go forth "■in the spirit and 
power of Mias," (Luke i. 17,) which would also seem to imply 
that he was not the literal Elias, or Elijah, but only filled an 
office like that which Elijah once filled, and which Elijah in 
person is yet to fill in a more glorious and wonderful manner. 
The truth appears to be that the promise respects both a figura- 
tive or spiritual Elias, and the real or personal Elias, — the former 
being John the Baptist, and the latter the selfsame prophet of 
Tishbe who humbled Ahab and the prophets of Baal in the times 
of old, and who will again marvellously humble some of the kings 
of the earth in the times yet future. Compare Rev. xi, 3-13, 
See also Greswell on the Parables^ i. 152-161 ; and Theol. and 
Lit. Review, ix. 687-609. 



48 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

pleasure." (Ps. ii. 2, 5.) ''In the last days/' says the 
apostle, ''perilous times shall come." (2 Tim. iii. 1.) 
There shall be " dreamers, who despise dominion, and 
speak evil of dignities, and of those things which they 
know not." (Jude 8-18.) God says, "I will shake 
all nations, and the Desire of nations shall come." 
(Hag. ii. 7.) " I will overturn, overturn, overturn 
it, until he come whose right it is ; and I will give it 
him." (Ezek. xxi. 27.) There shall be wars and 
rumors of wars ; political disasters and perplexities ; 
civil storms, earthquakes and commotions ; and fer- 
ments and precipitations in the whole existing order 
of things. "Nations" shall be "angry." Eevo- 
lutions shall be rife. People shall rise in masses to 
overthrow established governments. Ambitious and 
godless men will spring into places of power, array 
their followers against each other, trample down 
all order and just law, and bring in swift destruc- 
tion. Infidels and socialists of a thousand hues 
shall combine to disorganize, undermine, subvert, 
and ruin, ' with unrelenting vandalism. Schisms 
and feuds of all sorts shall break forth, to cripple, 
disturb, and desolate. " Men shall be lovers of their 
own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemous, 
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without 
natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, in- 
continent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 
traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more 
than lovers of God," (2 Tim. iii. 2-4,) on which 
account his wrath shall be upon the children of men. 
Great powers, which think themselves secure, shall 



SECOND DISCOURSE. 49 

be suddenly overwhelmed. Great alliances shall be 
formed, but only the more to entangle and perplex. 
And the whole earth shall reel and stagger with 
delirium from the cup of God's anger. All this is 
plainly written. 

And to it all shall be added strange manifestations 
in nature, — '' signs in the sun, and in the moon, and 
in the stars," (Luke xxi. 25,) quite out of the usual 
order of things, and all combining to make out the 
great clamor and cry of the text, " Behold, the Bride- 
groom eomethi Go ye out to meet him /" 

Not all men, indeed, shall understand this cry. 
'' None of the wicked shall understand,'' said the 
angel to Daniel, (xii. 10.) Men shall go on in their 
folly and unbelief, as they did in Noah's day, and 
not heed nor know, until the Judge, with fearful 
doom, is upon them. (Matt. xxiv. 37-39.) '^ But the 
wise shall understand,'' (Dan. xii. 10.) The virgins, 
though drowsy and asleep, all hear the clamor of the 
Bridegroom's coming, and at once bestir themselves 
to be ready to meet him and to fall in with lamps 
trimmed and burning. Not one of them continues 
to sleep for a moment longer. They all catch the 
call, and set themselves to heed it. 

" Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.'' 

You see from this the quickening effect of the 
faithful preaching of the doctrine of Christ's speedy 
coming. Other doctrines must also be preached; 
and other doctrines may serve to make men Chris- 
tians, — but only sleepy and drowsy Christians, whose 



50 THE PARABLE OF THE VIEGINS. 

lamps burn dimly for want of trimming. It is the 
cry, ^^ Behold, the Bridegroom cometh" that is needed 
to disperse their drowsiness and to set them properly 
to work to be ready for the great festival. This did 
for these virgins what nothing else could do. It 
completely awakened them. It set them at once 
upon a careful and vigorous examination into their 
preparedness for the event thus close upon them. It 
gave new life to their exertions, and set all hands to 
trimming their dim lamps with more earnest anxiety 
than ever. Ministers may here learn a lesson to 
improve their efficiency, and to teach them what 
power to sway the consciences of men they lose by 
not preaching the certain and near coming of the 
great Master. Did they but realize it in their own 
hearts, it would impart a brightness and energy to 
their testimony which cannot otherwise exist, and 
give them an advantage in their work which they can 
by no other means possess. It was with this one 
truth that John the Baptist electrified all Jerusalem 
and Judea, and drew forth their multitudes to the 
baptism of repentance. (Luke iii. 2; Matt. iii. 5.) 
It was also the subject of Enoch's discourses. (Jude 
14, 15.) And the greatest and most efi'ective preach- 
ers that have ever lived are those who dwelt largely 
upon the theme of the near advent of Him "who 
was delivered for our offences and raised again for 
our justification." And if Christians generally would 
be fully awake to their estate and to the work of 
making ready to meet their Lord, let them bring 
themselves near to his coming, and bring that coming 



SECOND DISCOURSE. 51 

near to them, as a thing ready to occur and impend- 
ing over them every day. This will rouse them, if 
any thing will, and impart a sincerity and earnest- 
ness to their endeavors which will paralyze tempta- 
tion and contribute a thousandfold to insure their 
salvation. 

And what if this way of dealing with this subject 
has been seized upon by unworthy hands and pros- 
tituted to unholy uses? What if it has been often 
the handle of fanatics, schismatics, and lawless sepa- 
ratists from the Church and from the state ? What 
if men uncalled of Grod, and under no rightful eccle- 
siastical responsibilities, have made it a- hobby to 
bring themselves into notice, and taken it as an instru- 
ment of gaining adherents to their foolish* isms and 
of casting disrespect upon men much wiser and better 
than themselves ? Are we to relinquish every thing 
which some in their haste may abuse ? Are we to 
allow fanatics and errorists to dictate and control 
our teaching by retiring from whatever they touch? 
Shall we permit them to monopolize one of the great 
themes of prophets and apostles, because they have 
chosen to associate it with their weaknesses, errors, 
and offences against order and law? At that rate, 
we would soon have Christianity itself wrested from 
us, and all the sublime peculiarities of our faith 
transmuted into erratic dreams. Truth is truth, 
however surrounded, wrested, or misused. And we 
do injury to ourselves, and are unfaithful to the God 
of truth, not to cling to it in all its length and 
breadth, notwithstanding that it may perchance have 



52 THE PAE ABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

been upon the lips of the most disreputable of men 
and confessed in the dens of sensualists and traitors. 
The very devils believe there is a God : are we, then, 
to turn atheists lest we should be rated in affinity 
with devils ? No more are we to give up the right 
use of the powerful doctrine of the nearness of Christ 
to judge the world and reward his saints, because 
it has been the theme of fanatical dreamers and ill- 
balanced people. It has more than once aroused 
nations ; and the Church itself shall only become 
rightly awake when once its members hear, believe, 
and heed the cry, ''Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; 
go ye out to meet him." 

The exercises to which these virgins were impelled 
by this cry also demand a moment's attention. They 
were not only effectually awakened by it, but at once 
set themselves to work. They all arose, " and trimmed 
their lamps." 

To trim a lamp is to cleanse it, to remove the 
dead ashes and sooty incrustations around the flame, 
to raise and stir up the wick, to fill in oil, and to put 
every thing in complete condition to be used to the 
best advantage. The word here employed by the 
Savior is elsewhere translated garnish, adorn; as 
where the scribes and Pharisees are said to '^garnish 
the sepulchres of the righteous," (Matt, xxiii. 29,) 
and where the New Jerusalem is said to be "pre- 
pared as a bride adorned for her husband," (Rev. 
xxi. 2,) — that is, beautified, embellished, put in hand- 
some trim. And so these virgins set themselves to 
beautify their lamps, to have them burn brightly. 



SECOND DISCOURSE. 63 

to put them in complete trim for the greatest bril- 
liancy. 

To trim our lamps as Christians is to make a 
thorough examination of our condition ; to look into 
what is wanting, with a view to have every thing in 
perfect order ; to put away from us all dead works, 
and the sooty crust of formalism and mere routine 
which is so apt to gather around and check the flame 
of our devotion; to raise the wick of faith, and to 
stir up the gift of God that is in us, that we may 
take firmer hold of the promises and lean the more 
directly upon Christ as our strength and salvation ; 
and, by fresh acts of appropriation, to fill our souls 
with the fulness of grace and the unction of the Holy 
Spirit of promise, that we may be wholly consecrated 
to God and sealed unto the day of redemption. The 
great adornment of a Christian is a meek and living 
faith, — the spirit of holiness dwelling in his heart, 
pervading his whole nature, and shining in every 
act, word, and feeling of his life. Such a man is one 
of the true lights of the world, being illumined with 
the living radiance of the great Sun of righteous- 
ness. And to examine one's self with a view to such 
an adornment, at the same time diligently putting in 
order all one's stores of faith and charity, is to trim 
one's lamp into readiness for the Bridegroom's 
arrival. 

You will notice, also, that this doing up of lamps 
was necessary not on the part of the foolish virgins 
only, but on the part of all of them, — the wise as well 
as the foolish. Even those who were the best pre- 

5* 



54 THE PARABLE OF THE VIEGINS. 

pared were not prepared. Some have attempted to 
draw a distinction between the drowsiness and con- 
sequent unreadiness of the wise, and that of the 
foolish; but there is not the least foundation for this 
in the parable. Precisely the same declarations are 
made with reference to both classes. * It is as plainly- 
written as can be, that there was not a lamp but 
needed trimming, and not a virgin that did not need to 
bestir herself quickly, when the signal of the coming 
was given, nor one that was not herself most tho- 
roughly persuaded of the necessity of all possible 
haste in these renewed preparations to be ready, nor 
one that was not impelled to the most anxious 
activity to repair the now evident infirmities in her 
supposed readiness. 

There are some Christians who talk about being 
perfect in their qualifications to meet the Lord ; and 
I shall be glad if their persuasions in their own 
favor turn out to be founded in truth; but I am 
certified by this parable that many who think them- 
selves ready will find, when they come to confront 
the solemn scenes of the great day, that they are far 
less prepared than they suppose. That midnight 
cry, ■'' Behold, the Bridegroom cometh," will be the 
death-cry to many a feeling of security and sense 
of readiness even in the best of Christians. When 
that cry is once made evident in the soul, and the 
solemn reality of the Savior's close proximity is upon 

* "It seems impossible to gather any thing else, than that the 
■whole professing Church of Christ will be found at last in the 
state here set forth." — Drummond on the Parables, p. 417. 



SECOND DISCOURSE. 00 

US, there shall come with it a sudden laying open of 
the heart to itself, such as it never experienced until 
then. And with that disclosure shall weaknesses and 
deficiencies become manifest to each one's conviction 
of which there never was the remotest suspicion. A 
flood of light, suddenly pouring into all the darkest 
corners of the inmost spirit, will then show every 
man to himself exactly as he is. He shall awake as 
in a new world, where every thing is tried by new 
measurements and new and more searching tests. 
And the result will be more startling even to the 
very holiest than they ever previously imagined. 
Then shall the whole life come under quick review : 
the weaknesses of childhood long since forgotten, the 
hilarities of youth inwrought with sin, the ambition 
and worldliness of riper age, and every act from 
childhood onward, all shall rise before the con- 
science with every defect evident and unmistakable, 
and with great troops of moral ills and crimes, of 
which we have never dreamed, thrown out as by 
magic from their hidden ambuscade to menace and 
overwhelm our peace. 

Whatever may be our attainments, we are all a 
great deal worse than we think we are. No living 
man has ever yet sounded all the depths and subtle- 
ties of his own depraved heart. No living man can 
take up in one grasp a just estimate of his entire 
history. As remarked by a great preacher, "The 
variety of events which succeed each other here 
below, and divide our life, fix our attention only on 
the present, and do not permit us to recollect it in 



66 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

the whole, or fully to see what we really are. We 
never regard ourselves but in that point of 7iew in 
which our present situation holds us out: the last 
situation is always the one which determines our 
judgment of ourselves; a sentiment of salvation, 
with which God sometimes indulges us, calms us 
on an insensibility of many years ; a day passed in 
exercises of piety makes us forget a life of crimes; 
the declaration of our faults at the tribunal of peni- 
tence effaces them from our remembrance, and they 
become to us as though they had not been : in a 
word, of all the different states of our conscience we 
never see but the present."* It will not be so when 
we come to that moment of intense awakening when 
we are aroused to the reality that the Bridegroom's 
coming, with all his glorious train, is just upon us. 
Then shall the whole heart, for the entire life, stand 
out to view, with all its long-hidden depths revealed, 
all its unsuspected secrets suddenly laid bare, and 
every act, desire, word, thought, and deed, from its 
first feeling to its latest sigh, with the true estimate 
to be put on each, and the grand sum-total of the 
entire account, made visible in a moment; and we 
shall see at a single glance what we never before 
could rightly search out, — that is, our true selves. 
Not a crime but shall then be present to us; not a 
departure from holiness but shall display itself; not 
an omission, of which the catalogue is almost inter- 
minable, nor a vile motive entertained, nor a mean 

* Massillon, on the Day of Judgment. 



SECOND DISCOUESE. 57 

compliance, nor an opportunity neglected, nor a truth 
avoided or a good deed undone, nor a mercy unac- 
knowledged or a duty unperformed, nor a moment 
wasted or a day unimproved, but shall then confront 
us. And the few prayers with which we now satisfy 
ourselves, and the few brief weekly services through 
which we pass with hardly interest enough to keep 
from falling asleep, and the few dollars given to God, 
and the few good acts for which we credit ourselves 
so largely, and that feeble round of experiences 
which makes up the record of most men's piety, — 
how shall they then dwindle down from the signifi- 
cance which we now attach to them, and seem to 
change into miserable mockeries that call only for 
an everlasting detestation of ourselves that ever we 
could think of seriously relying upon them ! The 
mere thought of how we shall then appear, startles 
us as we dwell upon it, and almost makes us afraid 
to entertain it for a moment. From this we may 
judge to some extent how it will be in reality. And 
as we thus but feebly anticipate the nature and 
results of that last self-searching for readiness to 
meet the Lord, who that does not see and feel that 
the fund of goodness, faith, charity, and consecration 
must needs be vastly ampler than that which most 
Christians possess, from which to garnish their lamps 
into fitness to join the glorious marriage-procession 
of the Lamb! Even apart from this parable, and 
without reference to its statements, we are prepared 
to behold just what it portrays to us, — that the 
midnight cry shall find even the best of Christians 



68 THE PARABLE OF THE VIHGINS. 

greatly deficient, and multitudes wlio will then for 
the first time discover that they are too irremediably 
wanting ever to enter in to the marriage-supper 
of the Lamb. 

Eouse thee, then, drowsy professor, and think 
what shall be thy condition in that solemn night 
of the announcement of the Bridegroom's presence. 
Survey thy supplies for that emergency, and thy 
store for the requisitions which shall then be laid 
upon thee. Look at thy dim lamp, with its feeble 
flame already flickering to extinction. How wilt 
thou join that glorious cavalcade of torches bright, 
with such a mockery? And where are thy reserved 
supplies to make it better? Suppose that this night 
some messenger from heaven were to throw open thy 
chamber-door and shout into thy startled ear, ^'The 
Bridegroom is come I Be ready in a moment, or thy 
chance is forever lostP' would the summons find you 
with grace enough in store to meet the trying re- 
quirements of the event? If even a doubt upon the 
subject exists, give to thy soul no rest, but haste thee 
to thy prayers, renew thy consecration, and set out 
afresh. For if the best-prepared will then have 
to bestir themselves with all possible diligence, and 
many even chaste, pure, waiting virgins fail, how 
shall it be with those whose profession is but little 
more than a mere name, and with those who have 
never yet taken the first step toward becoming ready 
to meet their Judge ? 

thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of 
the world, have mercy on us! By thy love unto 



SECOND DISCOURSE. 59 

death, even the death of the cross; by the terrors 
that encompassed thy soul ; by the sufferings which 
thou didst endure in thy body ; by the bitter agony 
of thy death ; have mercy on us, and keep us against 
the dismays of that solemn season ! Amen. Amen. 



i|iri gisc0urse. 



CONTRAST BETWEEN THE FIRST AND LAST PARTS OF THIS PARABLE 
THE DEFICIENCY OF THE FOOLISH VIRGINS — HOW IT WAS PRO- 
POSED TO REMEDY IT — THE FOLLY OF TRUSTING TO THE GOODNESS 
OR INTERCESSIONS OF OTHERS IN MATTERS OF SALVATION — THE 
ADVICE GIVEN TO THE FOOLISH VIRGINS — THE FREE AND ABUN- 
DANT PROVISIONS OF GRACE. 



" Then those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the 
foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil ; for our lamps are 
gone \marg. going] out. But the wise answered, saying, Not 
so ; lest there be not enough for us and you : hut go ye rather to 
them that sell, and buy for yourselves." — Matt. xxv. 7-9. 

Theee is a marked contrast between the manner 
in whicli the coming of the Bridegroom is represented 
in the first part of this parable, and that in which it 
is made to appear in the latter part. In the one 
case, every thing seems calm, with plenty of time on 
hand ; in the other, all is excitement and hurry. The 
point at which this difference occurs, is that at which 
the midnight cry is made. Itself arrayed in the 
attributes of an anxious and hasty alarum, it throws 
every thing into commotion, and introduces a period 
in which the whole face of things is changed. The 
Bridegroom, who had tarried so long, now moves 
with all possible expedition. The virgins that once 
trimmed their lamps at their leisure, and went forth 
with composed deliberation, now find themselves 

60 



THIRD DISCOURSE. 61 

pressed to the last extremities of hasie. And the 
whole scene rushes forward with such unexpected 
suddenness that, with all the haste possible, the 
Bridegroom comes, and passes before one-half of them 
can make ready to join him as they anticipated. 

This is the uniform representation of the Scrip- 
tures concerning this matter. Even in the Old Testa- 
ment we find it written, ^^The Lord shall suddenly 
come to his temple, even the messenger of the cove- 
nant, whom ye delight in." (Mai. iii. 1.) Christ 
himself says that 'Hhe Son of man cometh at an 
hour when ye think not," — in a day when many a 
servant ''looketh not for him, and at an hour when 
he is not aware," (Matt. xxiv. 50,) and that ''as a 
snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the 
face of the whole earth." (Luke xxi. 35.) And to 
the Thessalonians (v. 1, 2) Paul says, ''Of the times 
and seasons ye have no need that I write unto you; 
for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the 
Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." Hence, 
also, those many exhortations to watch, to be sober, 
and to be continually on the look-out, that that day 
may not come upon us "unawares;" implying that 
it will be precipitated upon us with great sudden- 
ness, and that, when it once arrives, every thing will 
be hurry and proceed with great quickness. 

It is this suddenness of the Bridegroom's coming, 
and the haste by which every movement will then 
be characterized, which constitute the backo^round 
of the picture of alarming discovery and consequent 



62 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

confusion and distress which now comes before us in 
the case of the five foolish virgins. 

The awakening midnight cry had been given. The 
great clamor of the Bridegroom's immediate proxi- 
mity was ringing in every ear. The drowsiness 
which once hung over them was effectually dissipated. 
Every faculty was now intent upon the one great 
absorbing thought of being ready to meet the long- 
expected one and to go in with him to the feast. All 
hands alike were busy with trembling haste trimming 
up their lamps. Never were wicks cleansed and 
stirred with more anxiety and despatch. Never was 
so much made to depend upon having them at once 
burning fresh and bright. It was a moment of in- 
tense concern, — the last critical moment, — a moment 
on which the whole question of admission to the festi- 
val for which they came out was to turn, — a moment 
which would admit of no protraction or delay, — a 
moment when all must be ready, or fail in partaking 
of those nuptial joys and honors to which they 
aspired. And just in this moment of busy haste and 
required preparation, five of these maidens found 
that their oil was exhausted and their lamps about 
to expire. Strange and vexatious discovery to be 
made in a time of such exigency ! So vivid is the 
picture that we can almost see the expressions of 
mingled hope and consternation of each as she draws 
up the wick anew, and nurses the feeble flame, which 
brightens a little only to burn the less. 

" And the foolish \yirgins\ said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; 
for our lamps are going out." 



THIRD DISCOURSE. 63 

Here now arises one of the most important in- 
quiries in the interpretation of this parable, — namely, 
what that lack in some Christians is which is repre- 
sented by the deficiency of oil in the lamps of these 
virgins. It has been a popular impression that these 
improvident virgins represent false Christians, un- 
regenerate and dead members of the visible Church, 
hypocrites and self- deceivers. I have already ad- 
verted to some of the reasons why I cannot so un- 
derstand it. Hypocrites and unregenerate persons 
are not 'Wirgins,"* no matter how much they pro- 

* Professor Trench asserts that nothing can be argued from 
this term in the interpretation of this parable. But it is an as- 
sertion which cannot be maintained. This word is as much a 
part of the record as any other, and quite as prominent in the 
description. It is also one of the most univocal, significant, and 
carefully-guarded words by which the New Testament designates 
true Christians. In its literal sense it is found outside of this 
parable only in Matt. i. 23 ; Luke i. 27, ii. 36 ; Acts xxi. 9 ; 
1 Cor. vii. 25-28, 34, 36, 37, where it is employed to denote un- 
touched purity. In its tropical sense it is used but twice, and in 
each case accompanied with a fulness of description, besides, 
which leaves no room for its application to any other than real 
Christians. The first is 2 Cor. xii. 2, where it is employed to 
denote persons ** espoused" to Christ, — Christians "uncorrupted 
from the simplicity that is in Christ," — such as are fit to be pre- 
sented to Christ as hi-s Bride. The other instance is Rev. xiv. 
4, where it is used to designate those who are "not defiled," 
"which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth," who are "re- 
deemed from among men," in whom is "no guile," and who are 
"without fault." These passages give God's own explanation of 
the word, and show that in the mind of the Holy Ghost it denotes 
a flower of chastity and pureness which is not mere profession 
or semblance, but reality. Neither the word of God nor the lan- 
guage of man knows any thing of a bastard or spurious vir- 



64 THE PARABLE OF THE VIEGINS. 

fess to be. Hypocrites and unregenerate persons 
are not such as are effectually called to the marriage- 
supper of the Lamb, and are not among those who 
are betrothed to him and whose hearts go out in 

ginity. It is not a thing of degrees or of profession, but a pos- 
session wliich is perfect and real if it exists at all. In Scripture, 
and everywhere else, nothing is virgin which is not genuine, true, 
and pure, whether the word be spoken literally or tropically. 
There is not another word in the New Testament whose meaning 
it more clearly defines than this word napOevog. It is ap- 
plied to the five foolish virgins with the same unqualified posi- 
tiveness with which it is applied to the five wise ones. And to 
rule out its testimony to the meaning of this parable, or to un- 
dertake arbitrarily to impose upon it here a sense which it no- 
where else has, is as much as to say that we are at liberty to 
interpret the oracles of God in whatever way our prepossessions, 
caprice, or fancy may dictate. It is, furthermore, the first and all- 
conditioning word in this entire description. To throw it aside 
is, therefore, like undertaking to decide a cause justly by setting 
aside the chief and most competent witness. For all this I am 
not prepared, and hence insist upon the admission of this word, 
which, according to its invariable scriptural meaning, ascribes to 
the foolish virgins a spiritual chastity as real and undamaged as 
that which belongs to the wise ones. 

Dr. Lisco, who has not given to his exposition of this parable 
the benefit and influence of his admission, is yet constrained to 
say, "Dass die ganze Gemeinde und die einzelne Seele eine Jung- 
frau genannt wird, deutet auf reine Liebe hin ; ... in welches 
keine fremde und unheilige Liebe sich einschleichen darf, 
wodurch die reine Brautliebe zu Christo befleckt wiirde." — 
Bilderstoff des Neuen Testamentes, ^ 22. The writer of the article 
on this word in Kitto's Cyclopedia, also, says of it that "it is 
metaphorically used in the New Testament to denote a high state 
of moral purity." The wisdom and follg spoken of in this 
parable can by no possibility be made to refer to the virginity of 
the parties to whom they are respectively ascribed. The vir- 
ginity is one thing • the wisdom or folly is another thing. The 



THIHB DISCOURSE. 65 

joyous anticipation of his coming lo receive his 
Bride. Hypocrites and unregenerate persons are 
not partakers of the consecrating, renewing, and 
sanctifying oil of the Holy Spirit; neither do they 
hear and heed the cry of the Bridegroom's coming, 
so as to bestir themselves with all diligence to be 
ready to meet him. Hypocrites and unregenerate 
persons, whatever may be their profession, have 
never had their lamps lit and burning, as these 
unwise virgins once had. The picture, therefore, must 
be that of real Christians, and of diiferences found 
among true subjects of grace. 

So also some of the profoundest interpreters have 
felt themselves forced to conclude. Stier says, ''Both 
parties [in this parable] are virgins before Christ : 
there is no hypocrite or whore among them; they 
are not disloyal to Christ, the Lord and Head of his 
Church, the Bridegroom, but are completely parallel 
with those who afterwards (v. 24) are called his own 
servants, each of whom actually received and took 
his talent of grace from the Lord, and also did not 
throw it away. Nothing is here said of Christians 

Trisdom or folly respects only the consideration and forecast 
exercised by persons already and equally virgins ; the virginity 
refers to something much more essential and important, without 
"which a man is not at all included in the description given in this 
parable. And as virginity literally means real pureness, and 
spiritual virginity must needs be — what the Scriptures uniformly 
and so particularly describe it to be — real freedom from spiritual 
whoredom, infidelity, and uncleanness, I argue that the five 
foolish virgins were as true, though not as discreet and eminent, 
Christians as any included in this parable. 

6* 



66 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

or Christian cliurclies which are fallen away. . . . 
The foolish virgins are not hypocrites or false Chris- 
tians, who have the form of godliness without the 
substance ; for their lamps also burn, — nay, burn long, 
even to the latest moment, and were therefore per- 
haps at first so copiously filled that, just for this rea- 
son, no further stock seemed to be necessary. Oil, 
also, is not altogether wanting: their lamps have 
rather such an abundant measure of it that they 
have thereby become secure."* Olshausen says, 
''The virgins, like the servants, are by no means in- 
tended to designate all members of the Church, but 
only those among them who stand in a position 
towards the Eedeemer like that of the apostles and 
disciples generally. . . . The fact that they are all 
characterized as virgins, is a proof that the antithesis 
of loise and foolish is not to be taken in the sense of 
good and wicked. The foolish virgin s . . . were not 
altogether destitute of the higher element of [Chris- 
tian] life: their hearts glowed with love to the Lord, 
which impelled them to go out and meet him; . . . 
they possessed the general condition of happiness, 
faith." (Comment, in loc.) Trench, even, remarks in 
one place that ''by the foolish virgins are meant, 
not hypocrites, not self-conscious dissemblers, much 
less the openly profane and ungodly. "f 

I conclude, therefore, that it was not real Chris- 
tianity which they lacked, nor any thing to distin- 
guish them from the common household of true be- 

* Words of Jesus, in loc. f Parables, in loc. 



THIRD DISCOURSE. 67 

lie vers. They had been called ; they had truly 
responded ; they had made a good confession ; they 
were thoroughly identified with the best of their 
kind ; they were spiritually chaste ; they had par- 
taken of all the enlightening, quickening, and conse- 
crating graces of the Holy Spirit; they had faith; 
they had love; they had turned their backs upon 
the world for the sake of being with Jesus in the 
promised feast ; they were waiting for him even to 
the moment of his arrival ; the midnight cry found 
them in their proper places, slumbering no more 
heavily than their more prudent comrades ; they 
awoke as quickly ; and they were no less anxious and 
active in what yet remained to be done to meet their 
Lord. And it seems to me like emptying the Savior's 
words of all propriety, to understand his description 
of any other than true Christians and members of the 
true Church. I know of no quality of Christian 
character or life which is not embraced in it. The 
deficiency, as I take it, respects degree, not kind or 
quality. The foolish virgins had every thing the 
wise had, felt every thing they felt, did every thing 
they did ; only the measure of oil they took was not 
arranged with so much discreetness and forecast. 
They were improvident, — foolish, — but not in the 
sense of wicked, nor yet so foolish as to go without 
oil. They had oil. They had also a considerable 
quantity of it, — enough to keep their lamps burning 
even to the last moment of the Bridegroom's long and 
unexpected delay, — but just not quite enough to be 
in a state of readiness when the cry of his hasty 



68 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

approach broke upon them. Every thing that was 
necessary they had ; but their supplies lacked in that 
abundance which enabled the others to fall in with 
the procession as it passed, and to go in to the mar- 
riage. 

By these improvident virgins, therefore, I can 
understand none other than real Christians, with no 
stain whatever upon the genuineness of their profes- 
sion, but whose Christianity lacks that maturity 
of growth, depth of consecration, and perfection of 
development which alone can entitle to the highest 
honors and joys of the kingdom. The Royalties and 
Priesthoods of the world to come are not to be reached 
by the common orders of saintship. They are not 
reserved for such as never rise in their piety beyond 
the ordinary run of Christian attainment. When 
Grod sends out to have kings anointed for his king- 
dom, he will have none but the Sauls who stand head 
and shoulders above the masses, and the Davids 
whose intrepid courage not all the proud boastings 
of Philistia's mail-clad champion can shake, and the 
Solomons whose wisdom outshines all common sa- 
gacity and discretion. There must be a fulness of 
self-sacrifice for Christ, a completeness of obedience, 
a thoroughness of sanctifi cation, an ampleness in all 
the graces of the indwelling Spirit, and a meekness 
and fidelity under the cross, resembling that of Christ 
himself, or there will be no crowns, no thrones, no 
kingdoms. We must suffer with Christ to be glori- 
fied with him. We must overcome in the day of 
trial, and keep his works unto the end, to sit with 



THIRD DISCOURSE. 69 

him on his throne. We must be like Christ, and 
purify ourselves as he is pure, or we never can be 
with him and see him as he is. And it is the lack 
of this maturity of grace and holiness, and the ab- 
sence of this tried thoroughness of sanctification in 
body, soul, and spirit, with the disheartening and 
afflictive conviction of this lack settling down upon 
the soul, that is here set forth by the exhausted and 
expiring lamps of these unready virgins. 

But let us look now at the manner in which they 
proposed to remedy their deficiencies in the moment 
of extremity. 

*' The foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oilJ' 

They thought to borrow from their better-furnished 
companions ! I do not know which to consider the 
more foolish in these virgins, — their want of forecast 
in providing a sufficient amount of oil, or their 
attempt to remedy their deficiency in the last hour 
by applying for the use of what was not theirs. 
The system of borrowing, except in very rare cases, 
is never any thing but a very foolish system. It 
seldom works any real advantage either to the lender 
or the borrower. But the idea of borrowing spiritual 
and moral qualifications for the marria2:e-supper of 
the Lamb, is foolish beyond measure. 

It would indeed seem very natural that these 
virgins, seeing their wiser companions well supplied, 
should ask help of them in their sad exigency ; and 
so men have found very plausible apologies for pray- 



70 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

ing to noted saints and asking them to help by 
their prayers and intercessions. How natural, they 
say, that a mother in heaven should pray for her 
child on earth, and that a son in his need should call 
upon his sainted father to speak a word for him into 
the ear of that Savior on whose bosom he leans ! 
How much more likely, they say, that Christ should 
give heed to the prayers of his own mother, and to 
the saints whose names the Church wears upon her 
heart, than to the broken and imperfect petitions of 
such poor unworthy ones as we ! And by argu- 
ments like these, as early as the fourth century, and 
from that onward more and more until this day, have 
Christian people been persuaded to play the part of 
these foolish virgins, filling their mouths with Ave 
Marias and cries to the sainted ones in heaven, 
hoping thereby to find help for their conscious de- 
ficiencies. Nay, more : the Church of Christ was 
hardly a thousand years old before it came to be 
held and taught in her highest courts, preached from 
her pulpits, and set up as a subject of hope and con- 
solation to distressed and anxious souls, " that there 
actually existed an immense treasure of merits, com- 
posed of the pious deeds and virtuous actions which 
the saints had performed heyond -what was necessary 
for their own salvation, and which were therefore 
applicable to the benefit of others," who had only to 
apply for them through the proper ecclesiastics to 
share all their blessed advantages without subjection 
to the requirements of a rigid personal holiness. 
Even to this moment, something of the kind is an 



THIRD DISCOURSE. 71 

acknowledged doctrine of about one-half of professed 
Christendom, and is likely to remain so, bearing its 
wretched fruits, until Christ comes. Saint-mediator- 
ship, and pretended borrowing from the eminently 
wise and holy, and reliance upon what others are 
supposed to be able to do for us, still play a large 
part in the religion of multitudes who, but for what 
they look to others to supply to them, would needs 
be in utter despair of salvation. What, indeed, are 
all the ''Hail Mary"s of the Eomish Manual, and all 
the self-complacencies of Protestants in the attitude 
of their churches and champions toward Eome, and 
that undue dependence of multitudes upon the elo- 
quence of preachers, the absolutions of priests, and 
the prayers and labors of distinguished men of Cod, 
but this very cry of the foolish virgins, '' Give us of 
your oil" ? 

But, let it take what form it may, it is a miserable 
and unprofitable prayer. Muster in its favor what 
arguments it can, it meets no countenance from 
those to whom it is addressed. And, with all the 
pleas that it may take from the promptings of natural 
affection, I cannot for a moment admit its propriety. 
The question is not as to what appears natural, but 
as to the real wisdom and value of the thing in the 
light of experience and God's word. History shows 
that indulgence in it opens the door for many mis- 
chiefs. We look in vain for any encouragement of 
it in the Scriptures. We indeed read of instances of 
such prayer. We are told of a certain rich man who 
got into trouble, and bethought him to ask favors of 



72 THE PARABLE OP THE VIRGINS. 

a certain distinguished saint in heaven. And the 
prayer he made was also the prayer of an afflicted 
'' son" to a saintly '' father." Nor was ever a prayer 
offered in deeper sincerity. But it was only answered 
with refusal. It was repeated in still deeper earnest- 
ness in behalf of "brethren," but was only the more 
firmly denied. (Luke xvi. 23-31.) So here the dis- 
tressed and needy virgins pray to their wiser and 
more fortunate companions, but it brings them no 
relief. You may borrow another man's money, and 
flourish on it in the eyes of the world as if it were 
your own, but you cannot borrow another Christian's 
graces and enter in on them to the marriage of the 
Lamb. Eeligion is personal. God deals with us as 
individuals, and distributes his awards to each as if 
there were not another. ISTor is it in the power of 
creatures to do works of supererogation. Neither 
may saints open exchanges with each other by which 
the possessions of one shall be made available for his 
friend. 

It is a great thing to have pious friends, I will 
admit. The prayers and recollections of a godly 
mother are like silken cords around the heart of her 
son, which draw upon and check him in his wildest 
wanderings and his maddest passion. God also often 
uses these softening agencies to open the way for the 
triumphs of his wonder-working grace. But though 
that mother be as good as the virgin mother of our 
Lord, — though she nightly bathe her pillow with 
tears of supplication for her boy, — though her daily 
prayers go up for him fervent and pure as those 



THIRD DISCOURSE. 73 

whicli dropped from the lips of the lone Jesus in the 
mount of his devotions, — it shall avail nothing toward 
the salvation of her erring child or his promotion in 
the honors of the kingdom to come, unless he himself 
shall move to turn from his follies to his Maker and 
give himself up to a life of unreserved consecration to 
Christ. Readiness to meet the Bridegroom when he 
comes requires a personal activity, wisdom, and accre- 
tion of goodness and grace. No man, or angel, or priest 
on earth, or saint in heaven, can supply to us what 
may be thus lacking in ourselves to qualify us to be 
guests at the marriage of the Lamb. We ourselves 
must exercise the wisdom and activity to lay in the 
necessary stock of oil, or we shall in vain apply for it 
to our fellow-Christians when once the great day is 
upon us. The resort of these virgins was a foolish 
resort, however naturally prompted ; and it brought 
them no relief. 

" The wise {virgins'] answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not 
enough for us and you." 

There will be two kinds of entrance into the king- 
dom of heaven. Peter speaks of some who shall have 
ministered unto them '' an abundant entrance," like 
that of a ship with spreading sails and a favorable 
wind coming joyously into port. The same apostle 
speaks of others who are ''scarcely saved," whom 
Jude refers to as saved by being " pulled out" in the 
last moment of fearful extremity, like shipwrecked 
mariners brought with difficulty to the shore. But 
whichever kind of entrance it may be, — whether with 

7 



74 THE PAEABLE OF THE VIEGINS. 

the abundant and glowing fulness and ease of the 
first, or the difficulty and narrowness of the last, — 
there is not one but will need all the grace and excel- 
lency of attainment in holy things which he can com- 
mand. There will be nothing to spare in any case. 
It will be to none so easy that they could have 
reached it by sharing their possessions with others. 
The words of the Savior are, ''When ye shall have 
done all those things which are commanded you, say, 
We are unprofitable servants: we have done that 
which was our duty to do," (Luke xvii. 10,) — nothing 
more. Lay by what oil we can, we never shall have 
an overstock from which to spare for others, if it 
were even possible to transfer it to them. I believe 
that one of the greatest wonders in heaven, even to 
the greatest saints, will be that ever they got there 
at all. So far from feeling then that less would have 
sufficed, they will fall down on their faces at the feet 
of Jesus, and confess that not unto them, but unto his 
own free and amazing grace alone, is all the praise 
due. And the wisdom of these virgins does not more 
shine in the provident forecast which furnished them 
with supplies when needed, than in this distrust of 
their sufficiency if diminished a single drop. There 
are some things which we can give and at the same 
time increase our own stores. There is a sphere of 
sympathy and beneficence in which ''he that watereth 
shall be watered himself," and where man may enrich 
himself by distributing and sharing his good things 
with others. There is such a thing as giving a light 
so as in no way to diminish ours, and yet kindle a 



THIED DISCOURSE. 75 

second which duplicates the original illumination. 
But when it comes to dividing the seamless coat of 
righteousness, the result of the attempt is that both 
parties have but rags and nakedness. 

Observe, now, the advice which these wise virgins 
gave to their destitute companions : — 

" Go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves." 

Some have taken these words as if given in the 
way of mockery, — as irony and derisive reproach. 
I cannot so receive them. Not even " Michael the 
archangel, when contending with the devil," was 
allowed to bring one railing accusation against him, 
(Jude 9 ;) and how can saints, whose own salvation 
is all of grace, revile, mock, and accuse their unfor- 
tunate companions who are in many things no worse 
than themselves ? How can a Christian lie, — whether 
in irony or in any other way, — or upbraid and mock 
with such falsehood, as this advice would be if not 
sincerely meant? And how can we reconcile it to 
the Scriptures and our own sense of what appertains 
to Christian charity and propriety, to believe that 
the Church of God is to enter into glory looking 
with sneers and taunts upon those who are left be- 
hind ? I have never yet read of sarcasm and vitu- 
peration in heaven, nor in the gateway of it. Nor 
can I be persuaded that it is for those who have 
been washed in the Savior's blood and sanctified by 
his Spirit, to be giving out counsels of mockery and 
falsehood to their friends in the very face of the 
judgment-seat of Christ. Such a thing cannot be. 



76 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

The words, also, have the tone of kindness and 
deep concern; and the counsels which they convey 
are plainly those of wisdom, presenting the only 
possible alternative in the case. It was good, kind, 
affectionate advice, such as we might expect from 
loving virgins, wise and prudent. Those to whom it 
was given saw no signs of mockery in it. The pro- 
priety of it was as evident to them as their own 
deficiency. They felt it to be good, and given in 
love, and at once set themselves to comply with it. 
And the fact that "they went to buy," as their com- 
rades directed them, is itself ample proof that there 
was no reproachful irony in the case. 

Looking upon this advice, then, as serious and 
honest, we have the fact implied that there are those 
whose proper business it is to sell or dispense the oil 
that was lacking in this case. Nor can there be 
much room for mistaking who they are. Taking 
this oil to be the unction of the Holy Spirit, in its 
deep practical consecration of those who possess it^ 
and remembering how the Spirit and the word are 
united, we are at once led to the proper official dis- 
pensers of the word and ordinances, as those with 
whom we are to deal in this matter. Of them we 
are to "buy the truth, also wisdom, and instruction, 
and understanding ;" not in the sense in which Simon 
Magus wished to buy of Paul, but in the sense of 
conference with them, and acceptance of the terms 
of self-sacrifice and obedience which it is for them to 
explain and exact, and on which alone such blessings 
can be obtained. A particular class of persons is 



THIRD DISCOURSE. 77 

referred to, — persons distinct from Christians gene- 
rally, and in some way publicly recognized as those 
to whom this business appertains, — a class which can 
be none other than the appointed ministry, (for which 
Dean Alford thinks this "no mean argument,") at 
the head of which of course stands Jesus, who is the 
great Head-Merchant in this glorious commerce, 
calling to all who would be Christians indeed, to buy 
of him gold tried in the fire, and white raiment, and 
eye-salve; and inviting even him ''who hath no 
money" to "come, buy wine and milk, without money 
and without price." 

In the Holy Scriptures, above all, are these precious 
stores contained and displayed. There Christ him- 
self, and prophets and apostles, propose to sell the 
holy oil of grace and salvation and to fill every re- 
ceptacle that any one may bring. There every 
earnest and prayerful spirit may obtain in plenty 
that which shall feed his lamp and make its light so 
shine as to be seen afar and to lead others to give 
glory to the great Father in heaven. 

Along with the written word are the holy sacra- 
ments, which also have their places as means of 
access to the great dispensary, and through which, 
as " the visible word," flow still fuller measures of 
the precious commodity to heighten and brighten the 
flame of Christian life and testimony. 

But connected with the word and sacraments, and 
in some degree necessary to them, are the living 
ministers, — ^the constituted auctioneers of grace in 
the market-places of the Church, — Christ's own sales- 

7* 



78 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRaiNS. 

men at the counters of proffered mercy, — by whose 
trained hands and studious care the plentiful provi- 
sion may be the better brought into notice and con- 
veyed to every vessel presented to receive it ; as it is 
"written, "He gave some, apostles; and some, pro- 
phets ; and some, evangelists ; and some, pastors and 
teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the 
work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body 
of Christ : till we all come in the unity of the faith, 
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a 
perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the 
fulness of Christ." (Eph. iv. 11, 12.) 

But it is further implied, in this advice, that there 
was oil to be had from these sources. In this both 
classes could be confident,- as they both had found it 
there before. Christianity hath its Gethsemane, — its 
olive-yard, — its oil-press, as the meaning of the word 
is, — where the Son of God was trodden like the 
green olives, and from which there ever flows an 
exhaustless supply. And everywhere in the word 
and ordinances are stored away great casks and 
tuns of the precious issue, ready to be drawn upon 
to furnish whosoever cometh to obtain it. Every 
church is a depository for it. ISTo one has far to go 
to get it. Every minister is the steward of immea- 
surable quantities, charged before God to sell and 
dispense by his ministrations to every one whom he 
can induce to receive it. Yea, so plenteous and so 
free is the provision, that no one shall efver meet the 
coming Bridegroom with an empty lamp because 
there was no oil to be had. 



THIRD DISCOURSE. 79 

"We are assured, by Christ himself, that God is 
more willing to give his Spirit to them that ask him, 
than are earthly parents to give good things to their 
children. This is a declaration of amazing depth. 
There is nothing upon earth upon which I would 
calculate with more confidence than the tender re- 
gard of parents for their own ofi'spring. It may 
sometimes fail ; it often has failed ; but it is one of 
the very last things to fail. Even when all else has 
broken and every other attachment has yielded and 
gone, this usually holds with a firmness and tenacity 
which it is next to impossible to destroy. The most 
degraded child of Adam, and the vilest and most 
execrable of men, if he has a father and a mother, 
may yet securely count that he is not altogether 
without sympathy, and that there is still somewhere 
a heart that softens when it thinks of him, and 
yearns to do him good. In all this wide world there 
is not a deeper, stronger, more copious, more inex- 
haustible fount of kindliness and wishes of good and 
blessing than a mother's heart. Earth has no sym- 
bol, no living sign, to represent what God has planted 
there. Whatever may be the degradation of the 
nature or the impurity of the life, this still remains, 
as a jewel set by Jehovah's hand, uncorrupted and 
undimmed by all the surrounding filth. Tell me, ye 
that are parents, what is there in all the range of 
your imaginings that could grind out of your spirits 
the kindly wish of good and blessing to your chil- 
dren ? Is it not for them you live, and for them 
that you are most anxious as you contemplate your 



80 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

dying day? And if God is as willing to give his 
Spirit as you are full of these kind parental desires, 
who shall tell the depth of that willingness 1 But 
our heavenly Father is even '' viore willing'^ than 
this; yea, ^'mttc/i more" willing, — as "much more" 
as he is greater and better than you ! Oh, what an 
abyss of kindness and mercifulness is thus opened 
up to us in the heart of the dear God that made us 
and daily watches over us! showing that if the 
Savior comes and finds us unfurnished with the holy 
unction of the Spirit, the fault will lie with us, and 
with an intensity of crimination which makes me 
shudder while I think of it. 

Arise, then, needy soul ; make thy application, 
and take to thyself the supplies which are now 
offered thee in such rich abundance. Seek, and thou 
shalt find ; ask, and thou shalt receive ; knock, and 
it shall be opened unto thee. At once — this very 
hour — put in thy bid. " Behold, now is the accepted 
time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 



imxi\ iis0TOt 



THE CBISIS OF THIS PARABLE — THE COMING AGAIN OF CHRIST 
THE GREAT HOPE OF THE CHURCH — THE OBJECT AND SUR- 
ROUNDINGS OF THAT EVENT — READINESS FOB IT — THE MAR- 
RIAGE-FEAST. 



"And while they went to buy, the Bridegroom came; and they 
that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door 
was shut." — Matt. xxv. 10. 

We come now to the great crisis in this parable, 
which also points forward to the great crisis in all 
human affairs, as respects both the Church and the 
world, — the return of Christ to end the present 
order of things and to introduce another adminis- 
tration and a new era. 

I need not enter here upon the many clear testi- 
monies that our blessed Lord is to come again to 
the earth, as literally and really as he went up 
from it. It was but recently that I pointed out the 
scriptural basis upon which this doctrine rests, and 
referred in some detail to the confessional acknow- 
ledgment which it has received from the whole 
Christian Church from the beginning until now.* 
Even Enoch, before the flood, prophesied of it. (Jude 
14, 15.) Peter says that God has given promise, 

* The Day of the Lord, pp. 4-8. 

81 



82 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

'' by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the 
world began," that *'he shall send Jesus Christ, 
which before was preached unto you, whom the hea- 
vens must receive until the times of the restitution of 
all things." Christ himself, when about to leave the 
world, said to his disciples, " I go to prepare a place 
for you. And if I go," — or, as some with good rea- 
son think the words ought to be rendered, — "as surely 
as I go and prepare a place for you, / will come 
again, and receive you unto myself; that where I 
am, there ye may be also." So also said the angels 
who attended upon him at his ascension : — " Ye men 
of Galilee, . . . this same Jesus, which is taken up 
from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner 
as ye have seen him go into heaven." He is the 
Bridegroom whom these virgins went out to meet, 
and the expectation of whose coming was the spring 
of all they did. It was this that drew them forth 
from the common world to their position of waiting. 
It was this that constituted the potent centre of all 
their thoughts, and the great joy and consolation of 
their hearts. 

The Church is now half widowed. She is in a 
state of semi-bereavement, by reason of the personal 
absence of her Lord. She is not without many pre- 
cious gifts and tokens of his affection for and great in- 
terest in her. She knows that he lives, and that he 
has graven her upon the palms of his hands. And 
sometimes, in the strength of vigorous faith, she 
realizes in some measure the blessedness for which 
she hopes. But, with all, there is a sense of pri- 



FOUETH DISCOUESE. 83 

vation upon her wliicli can be relieved only by his 
personal presence with her. These are the days of 
fasting, in which the Bridegroom is taken away ; the 
days of lamentation and weeping while the world 
rejoices ; the times of sorrow, which shall be turned 
to joy only when are fulfilled the words, ''Yet a 
little while, and ye shall see me." From the time 
that Christ was taken up, the Church has been in 
the discomfort and suspense of the virgins waiting in 
darkness. The betrothed feels it to be a dreary 
blank in which her Lord is away. No present glory 
of the Church, nor comforts of the Spirit, nor millen- 
nium of triumph and peace, can compensate for the 
sense of bereavement that is upon her, until Christ 
himself comes. It is with that coming that every 
thing for which she hopes is connected. It is with 
that coming that all her future glory is wrapped up. 
It is upon that coming that the fulfilment of all the 
gjreat promises that have been given her depends. 
It is only at that coming that she is to be invested 
with her high prerogatives as the Queen of the 
" King of kings and Lord of lords." 

And so, wherever the Church has been most her- 
self — that is, in her purest periods and in her best 
members — there has always been an earnest longing 
and waiting for the speedy coming again of Jesus, 
and a constant recurrence to it as her great hope, on 
which every thing in Christianity is staked. When 
the Thessalonian converts were turned from their 
idols, it was, on the one hand, " to serve the living 
God," and, on the other, " to wait for his Son from 



84 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

heaven." (1 Thess. i. 9, 10.) Paul speaks of it as a 
matter of great credit to the Corinthians that they 
*' came behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of 
the Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. i. 7.) When "that 
disciple whom Jesus loved," so favored in spiritual 
grace and heavenly revelations, heard it announced 
to him amid the rocks of Patmos, " Surely I come 
quickly," the deep and earnest prayer sprang living 
from his rejoicing heart, ^^ Even so, come, Lord 
Jesus J' "Our desires pant after the end of this age, 
the passing away of the world at the great day of 
God," says Tertullian. "Holy Lord, dost thou call 
that * a little while' in which I shall not see thee ? 
Oh, this 'little' is a long little!" exclaims St. Ber- 
nard. " If I were but sure that the trumpet should 
sound, and the dead should rise, and the Lord ap- 
pear before the period of my age, it would be the 
joy fullest tidings to me in the world," says Eichard 
Baxter. And in the daily prayer which Christ him- 
self has prescribed for all his followers he has in- 
serted a petition which puts every one on the anxious 
look-out for his return, and in which he would have 
his people ever beseeching him that that great event 
may not be delayed. " Thy kingdom come," is a 
prayer which shall not be answered till the King 
himself comes. 

Somewhere in the writings of Joanna Baillie there 
is a picture of a maiden whose lover had gone to the 
Holy Land and was reported to be slain. With 
steadfast hopes that he would again return, she kin- 
dled a beacon-fire on the shore of the island where 



FOURTH DISCOURSE. 85 

she dwelt, to guide the vessel which love imagined 
would restore him to her arms. And by that watch- 
fire she took her stand each night, looking out across 
the dusky Mediterranean with sad and tremulous 
expectation of him on whom her heart was set. It 
was meant only as poetry; but it may also be taken 
as a significant parable. That maiden is the Church. 
That lover is Jesus. That Holy Land is heaven. 
That report that he is dead is the teaching of un- 
belief and cold-hearted skepticism. That watch- 
fire is the flame of love and " blessed hope," fed by 
the midnight ministrations of waiting faithfulness. 
That scene beyond is the misty future. The 
darkness, the bleak rocks, and the rolling waters 
are nature's discouragements to a steadfast faith. 
And there, age after age, through all the night of 
her afiiiction, stands the noble maiden by her love- 
lit fire, bending forward to hail His coming who 
has pledged himself to make her his happy Bride ! 

And she shall not be disappointed. That Bride- 
groom shall come. He has promised to come. God 
has said that he will come. Angels have given as- 
surance that he will come. The Holy Ghost, in the 
hearts of prophets and apostles, has signified that he 
will come. There is nothing that can prevent him 
from coming. Every thing demands that he should 
come. And some of these nights, while the world 
is wrapped in slumbers and men are laughing at the 
maiden watching on the shore, a form shall rise over 
the surging waves, as once on Galilee, and bring to 
her loving heart a thrill of joy which shall more 



86 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

than repay for all her long watching and anxieties. 
It is written in the text that 

" The Bndegroom earned 

He had tarried long; but he came. The virgins 
had been often disappointed in looking for him; but 
he came. They had become so wearied out and 
dulled in their expectations of his coming as to be 
asleep when his advent occurred; but he came. 
Some had been so drowsy and improvident as to be 
quite unprepared for him ; but Ae came. The pro- 
mise was fulfilled. The expectation was realized. 
The long-deferred event arrived. Nothing on his 
part failed. Nor shall it be difi'erent with reference 
to that Savior to which all this refers. He shall 
come. Even while men scoff, and say, ''Where is 
the promise of his coming?" his chariot- wheels are 
moving, and his advent draweth near. 

Let us glance, then, at some of the surroundings 
and the intent of this great event, which render it a 
matter of so much interest and desire on the part of 
the Church. It is the custom of many to contem- 
plate it only in the light of something terrible, and 
to connect with it subjects of alarm and horror, 
which indispose even good people to hear of it at all. 
Most of the poetry and pulpit-rhetoric on the sub- 
ject is specially open to this objection. Some con- 
nect with it the utter destruction of the earth, and 
even of the whole material universe. But I have no 
idea that God will ever unmake his own creations, 



FOURTH DISCOURSE. 87 

or that he will blot out the world whose dust his only- 
begotten Son wore upon him, or that he will destroy 
the planet which was the birthplace and the tomb of 
Him in whom he was so well pleased. Eedemption 
cannot involve the destruction of what existed before 
redemption was necessary, nor consistently repeal 
any existing laws which were ordained before man 
fell. Besides, the Scriptures tell us, in so many 
words, that '' the earth abideth forever.'' (Eccles. i. 
4.) They also locate the fulfilment of some of their 
sublimest promises upon it, (Ps. xxxvii. 11 ; Ezek. 
xxxvii. 25-28; Dan. vii. 26-28 ; Matt. v. 5.) We read 
of no giving way of the earth under the feet of these 
virgins when they went to the dispensers of grace, 
and when they returned. Though the Bridegroom 
had come, it remained just as firm under their feet 
as ever it had been. 

Nor have I any idea that Christ's coming is to 
cut short the continuance of the race upon the earth, 
any more than the earth itself. God covenanted 
with Noah, not only that he would never again smite 
every living thing as he had done, (Gen. viii. 21,) 
but that, while the earth remaineth, seed-time and 
harvest shall not cease. (Gen. viii. 22, ix. 8-16.) 
But if seed-time and harvest are to continue as long 
as the earth remains, and *' the earth abideth for- 
ever," I take it that there will be people on it for- 
ever, to sow and reap, or there would be neither 
" seed-time nor harvest." Nay, there is a clause in 
that covenant which says, " Neither shall all 
FLESH BE CUT OFF ANY MORE." (Gen. ix. 11.) The 



88 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

Scriptures also speak of ^'generations of eternity/' 
or "eternal generations;"* which implies that the 

* Gen. ix. 12; Isa. li. 8; Dan. iv. 3, 4; Ps. cxxxv. 13, cxlv. 13, 
cxlvi. 10 ; Joel iii. 20. 

*' That the expression, generations of eternity, denotes genera- 
tions that are to continue in an endless series, is clear from the 
frequent use in the Scriptures of the continuous generations of 
mankind as a measure of eternity. Thus, in the expression, Isa. li. 
8, ' My righteousness shall be to eternity, and my salvation unto 
generation and generation,' leolam — to eternity — is used as a 
parallelism with 'unto generation and generation;' and the de- 
claration, 'My salvation shall be unto generation and generation,' 
asserts its eternity as absolutely as the expression, * My right- 
eousness shall be {leolam) to eternity,' ascribes eternity to that. 
This is confirmed, moreover, by the inconsistency of a diflFerent 
construction with the Divine perfections. It is as contradictory 
to God's own eternity and unchangeable goodness, wisdom, and 
purpose, to deny the eternity of his salvation, as it is to deny the 
eternity of his righteousness. The expressions are used in a like 
parallelism in Dan. iv. 3, 34 : — ' How great are his signs ! And 
how mighty are his wonders ! His kingdom is an everlasting 
kingdom, and his dominion unto generation and generation.' 
'And I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him 
that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, 
and his kingdom is unto generation and generation.' That these 
are parallels is made indisputable by the exhibition, in the first, 
of the kingdom, and in the other, of the dominion, as olamy 
everlasting ; while in the first it is the dominion, and in the last 
the kingdom, that is ' unto generation and generation.' The 
expression ' unto generation and generation' is used, therefore, 
as equivalent to eternity, and assumes, accordingly, that the 
generations of mankind are to continue to succeed one another 
throughout the unending future. In Ps. cxlv. 13, eternities, and 
every generation and generation, are used as equivalents. ' Thy 
kingdom is a kingdom (kal-leolamim) of all eternities, and thy 
dominion in every generation and generation.' As the dominion 
corresponds in duration with the kingdom, its continuance in 



FOURTH DISCOURSE. 89 

race, as God originally constituted it when he gave 
the command to " increase and multiply," is to con- 
tinue perpetually. 

These virgins were, indeed, separated when the 
Bridegroom came. Half of them, being ready, fell 
in with the joyous procession, and entered the place 
prepared for the feast, and so passed into the glori- 

every generation and generation of mankind is identical with its 
continuance through all eternities. ' Generation to generation' 
is used as the equivalent to eternity as the measure of God's 
name and reign. 'Jehovah, thy name is {leolam) to eternity; 
Jehovah, thy memory is unto generation and generation,' Ps. 
cxxxv. 13. 'Jehovah shall reign to eternity; thy God, Zion, 
unto generation and generation,' Ps. cxlv. 10. Here generation 
and generation is exhibited as the measure of God's eternal reign, 
as absolutely as eternity is. This use of the expression is in effect, 
therefore, as absolute a declaration that the generations of man- 
kind are to continue to succeed each other forever, as a direct 
affirmation that they are to continue in an endless succession 
would have been. As they are to be commensurate with his reign, 
they are to be as eternal as his reign is. And, finally, they are 
used by Joel (iii. 20) as equivalents in predicting the perpetuity 
of Judah's residence in their national land: — 'But Judah shall 
dwell to [olam) eternity, and Jerusalem to generation and gene- 
ration.' These passages, like the promises to Noah, thus ex- 
plicitly teach that the generations of men are to continue to 
succeed one another forever, and are to be a measure, in their 
perpetual series, of the round of eternal ages. To maintain that 
this is not their meaning, is not only to contradict the plain equi- 
valence of the endless generations of mankind to eternity in these 
delineations of the Divine kingdom and reign, but is to exhibit 
God as having used a measure of the continuance of his king- 
dom, his dominion, his name, and his memory, that is wholly 
incommensurate with and altogether misrepresents them ; which 
would be inconsistent with his veracity and wisdom." — Theol. and 
Lit. Journ. ix. 180-182. 

8* 



90 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

fied life; the other half, not being ready, were simply 
left behind, and that at no other place than where 
they were before the Bridegroom came, and where 
their generations are to continue forever.* 

The object and surroundings of Christ's second 
coming, as set forth in the Scriptures, may be com- 
prehended under the following statements : — 

First. He is to come to complete the redemption of 
his people, and to exalt them to a participation in his 
own glory. In one respect, redemption is already 
complete. As regards absolution and acquittal, and 
our hopes and titles under the covenant of mercy, 
the work has been done. But there is a vast deal 
which exists as yet in mere expectation and promise. 
God's people are all still under age, and embarrassed 
with various disabilities, which must be removed 
before they can enter upon the fruition of their 
covenanted portion. Some are yet in corrupt and 
dying bodies, and others holden of death and the 
grave. These must be raised, and those must be 
translated. None have as yet been openly approved 
or admitted to their anticipated reward. They are 
sons of God, but hidden sons. (Rom. viii. 19.) They 
are heirs, but the inheritance has not yet come into 
their possession. (1 Peter i. 4.) They are the be- 
trothed of the Lord, but they are yet in waiting for 
the return of Him whose absence still delays the 

* "It is remarkable that we never find the expression aw- 
'tAeia Tov Kuff/nov: the word aiuv indicates the time of the world, 
which passes away, whilst the world itself remains." — Olshausen 
in Matt. xxiv. 3. 



FOUETH DISCOURSE. 91 

marriage. He is, therefore, to come again to the 
earth, to take his true people to himself, to perfect 
their release from all present disabilities and priva- 
tions, to raise from the dead those of them that sleep, 
to translate those of them who are alive and waiting 
for him at the time, to share with them his glory, 
and to give them honor, blessedness, and dominion 
as the reward of their labors and sacrifices for him 
here. 

Second. Christ is to come to judge the nations, and 
to destroy from the earth all usurpers, confederates 
in evil, and wicked powers, plucking up every plant 
which the heavenly Father hath not planted, and 
gathering out of his kingdom every thing that offends. 
(Matt. xiii. 41, 42.) Antichrist is then to be visited 
for his blasphemies, and utterly overthrown, with all 
the potencies leagued with him. (Dan. xi. 45 ; Zech. 
xiv.) The Man of Sin is then to be cast down and 
destroyed. (2 Thess. ii. 8.) The False Prophet is 
then to be thrust into the lake of fire. (Eev. xix. 20.) 
Satan is to be bound and shut into his proper hell. 
(Eev. XX. 1-3.) And all them that have oppressed 
and afflicted the earth are then to have their dominion 
taken away and their kingdoms scattered like chaff 
to the four winds. (Dan. vii. 9.) 

In this, of course, will be involved many and ter- 
rible commotions, and dreadful revelations of the 
vengeance and almightiness of that God whose laws 
the powers of the world have been so long setting 
at defiance. It will be attended with " distress of 
nations," ''wars and rumors of wars," ''famines, 



92 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

pestilences, and earthquakes," '' great tribulation, 
such as was not since the beginning of the world to 
this time, nor ever shall be," and " blood, and fire, 
and pillars of smoke." But it is only upon the wicked 
nations, the ungodly, and such as are not ready when 
the Savior comes, that these troubles and fearful visita- 
tions shall fall, though bringing upon many destruc- 
tion as sudden and complete as that which overthrew 
Sodom and Gomorrah. (Isa. Ixvi. 24.) The long-afflicted 
saints of God will have no occasion to regret them. 
It is just that discomfiture of the wicked, and bruising 
of Satan, and casting out of insolent injustice and 
blasphemous tyranny, for which Christ has taught 
us to pray, for which the spirits of martyrs under 
the altar cry, and over which all the hosts of heaven 
unite in shouting halleluia to the Lord. As Moses 
sung and Miriam danced when Pharaoh and his host 
were overwhelmed in the sea, so shall all the great 
company of the saints be glad and rejoice at these 
judgments of their oppressors, and say, "We give 
thee thanks, Lord God Almighty, . . . because thou 
hast taken to thee thy great power, ... to destroy 
them which corrupt the earth." (Eev. xi. 17, 18.) 

Third. Along with these judgments, and as a still 
further intent of Christ's coming, will be the intro- 
duction of a new administration into all earthly 
affairs. I do not mean by this a new mode of re- 
demption, a new order of salvation, or in any respect 
another gospel from that which we now have, but 
simply a new administration for a wider and more 
effective application of what already is. The gospel 



FOURTH DISCOURSE. 93 

is expressly said to be ^'the everlasting gospel." 
(Rev. xiv. 6.) As Christ is the Lamb slain from the 
foundation of the world, through faith in whose blood 
alone forgiveness flows to sinful men, there shall 
never be any other Savior, nor any other mode of 
justification. He has been '' made a priest, not after 
the law of a carnal commandment, but after the 
power of an endless life," — " a priest forever.'" (Heb. 
vii. 16, 21.) And so the Spirit shall be the Great 
Sanctifier ^^ forever.'' (John xiv. 16.) The economy 
of salvation is the same under all dispensations and 
in all ages. But the forms in which that economy is 
presented to men, and the administrations with which 
it connects, are not always the same. Rituals change. 
Instrumentalities change. Commissions change. The 
Levite steps into the place of the patriarch; John 
comes in as a modification of Moses ; and the gospel 
ministry is a still further modification of both. The 
powers of magistracy in the world are now delegated 
to mortal men, who continually abuse them: they 
will hereafter be resumed by the Son of man, whose 
they are by gift of the Eternal Father, and be exer- 
cised only by himself and his glorified saints whom 
he is to make partakers of his throne. (Dan. vii. 
9-27.) All present ministries, and ordinances, and 
jurisdictions date only to the time of the Savior's 
second coming. Have you ever noticed, in your 
reading of the Scriptures, that we are commissioned 
to preach and baptize only "unto the end of the age," 
and to observe the holy solemnity of the Supper as 
the means of showing forth the Lord's death, only 



94 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

" till he come," and that " the kingdom, and do- 
minion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the 
whole heaven," are put in their present hands only 
" until the Ancient of days come" and "the judgment 
shall sit"? There all present configurations and 
administrations of things have their limit and reach 
their termination ; and from the moment of Christ's 
arrival they shall be put upon their march to pass 
away, just as John's dispensation entered upon its 
wane and soon disappeared after the personal minis- 
trations of Jesus began. The gospel shall not pass 
away; it is an "everlasting gospel;" the word shall 
not pass away, any more than the ancient Scriptures 
were superseded by the New Testament ; but there 
will be new commissions and appointments concerning 
it, and further revelations as to its meaning and in- 
tent, and more impressive disclosures of its hidden 
mysteries, and other regulations for its potent working 
in the hearts and lives of men. Young men are to 
see visions, and old men to dream dreams, and sons 
and daughters to prophesy, and all to know the Lord, 
from the least to the greatest. Other rule is to be 
set up in the place of present forms of empire, and 
other codes made to govern in earthly relations than 
those now written on the statute-books of nations, 
and other administrations substituted for those which 
have hitherto been so imperfect; for the God of 
heaven shall then set up a kingdom which shall never 
be destroyed, but which shall break in pieces and 
consume all other kingdoms, (Dan. ii. 44,) whilst great 
voices in heaven sing, " The kingdoms of this world 



FOUETH DISCOUESE. 95' 

are become the kingdoms of our Lford and of his 
Christ ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." (Rev. 
xi. 15 ; also xx. 4-6.) 

Fourth. As the result of these judgments and the 
setting up of this new order of things, the whole 
earth is then to be speedily converted to its rightful 
Lord. Satan being bound, antichrist destroyed, and 
the usurpations, tyrannies, and great wickednesses 
of the world broken up, and many new and over- 
whelming demonstrations of the truth of Scripture 
given, additional light thrown upon its pages, and 
more efficient agencies employed for the gospel's 
spread, there will be nothing to hinder a universal 
revival of righteousness, and such a turning of all 
nations to the Lord as shall seem like life from the 
dead from the one end of the world to the other. 
And so it is written, " When God's judgments are in 
the earth, then shall the inhabitants thereof learn 
righteousness." (Isa. xxvi. 9.) The case of these five 
foolish virgins shows that the arrival of the Bride- 
groom will beget a rushing and earnestness to procure 
the oil of grace, and a simultaneousness of movement 
in that direction, which never were known or witnessed 
before. A nation shall then be born in a day ; and 
a shower of salvation shall come over the earth and 
fill it with the glory of God and the praise of his un- 
searchable grace. For so hath the Psalmist sung: — 
" He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, 
as showers that water the earth. . . . The kings of 
Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents, the 
kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all 



96 THE PARABLE OF THE VIEGINS. 

kings shall fall down before him; all nations shall 
serve him. . . . Men shall be blessed in him ; all 
nations shall call him blessed." (Ps. Ixxii. 6, 10, 
11, 17.*) 

Fifth. Christ's coming, and the administrations 
connected with it, are to finish the redemption of 
the whole earth, to drive out entirely and forever all 
wickedness, to establish all its inhabitants in a state 
of loyalty to God, and to lift off the curse from all 
terrestrial creation. His coming, with what is to 
attend and follow it, is called " the regeneration," — 
*' the times of restitution of all things," — the making 
of '' all things new," — the deliverance of '^ the whole 
creation" from the bondage of corruption into the 
glorious liberty of the children of God. 

There is a time foretold when " there shall be no 
more curse." (Rev. xxii. 3.) Whatever sin has 
brought into the world must, therefore, be again 
driven out of it. Things must come back to the 
state in which they were before the curse came. Ee- 
demption is to be coextensive with the inroads of 
sin. Earth must yet be brought into equation with 
heaven. Individual souls shall be lost forever. In 
the long conflict between good and evil, there will 
be many irrecoverable precipitations. But the 
world and the race shall be restored, and made to 

* The following is a list of passages which bear upon this point: 
— Ps. ii., ex. ; Isa. ii. ; Micah iv. ; Ps. xcvi., xcviii., xcix. ; Zech 
viii., xiv., xii. 10-14; Rev. xi. 15-18, xv. 3, 4, xxi. 23-26. To 
these is to be added the 11th chapter of Romans, especially verses 
12 and 26; Joel ii. 28-32; and Daniel vii. 27. 



FOURTH DISCOURSE. 97 

move again the same as if Adam had not fallen. 
Nothing less than this is redemption. And from the 
moment that '' the sign of the Son of man" is seen 
in the heavens, the empire of death and unright- 
eousness is doomed. From that moment it shall 
decay, and wither, and dissolve, until every trace of 
it is at length expunged from the earth, and the 
beauty and glory of Eden put in its place. When 
this is achieved, then, and only then, redemption will 
be complete. 

Precious consummation of this long weary world ! 
Our hearts kindle at the joyous contemplation. No 
wonder that, with such surroundings, the Church 
has ever looked and longed for the day of the Lord's 
return. It is her wedding-day, and the world's 
redemption-day, and all creation's blessed Sabbath- 
day. "Well, therefore, might the great Milton pray, 
and all of us pray with him, " Come forth out of thy 
royal chambers, Prince of all the kings of the earth. 
Put on the visible robes of thy imperial majesty. 
Take up that unlimited sceptre which thy Almighty 
Father hath bequeathed thee. For now the voice of 
thy Bride calls thee, and all creatures sigh to be 
renewed !" It is only as Christians misunderstand 
these things that they cease to desire them or to pray 
for them. 

But we return to the specifications in our parable. 
The record is, that, when the Bridegroom came, 

" They that were ready went in with him to the marriage." 

To be ready when Christ comes, is to be found at 



98 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

the post of duty, diligent in the callings which we 
have received of the Lord, and faithfully engaged, 
doing what our hands find to do. It is to be in 
Christ by a faith which takes hold of him as our 
Redeemer, and trusts in him as our Helper, and 
obeys him as our Lord and Master. It is to be in a 
state of consecration so earnest and pervading as to 
count all things pledged to be laid upon the altar 
of sacrifice, if required. And hence it is to be in a 
class with the martyrs, who were ready to lay down 
their lives for the testimony of Jesus, and with such 
as Lived martyr-lives for the gospel and esteemed no 
sacrifice too great if they might thereby attain to 
the resurrection of the just. Those whom John saw 
sitting upon thrones were such as had been "be- 
headed for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of 
God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither 
his image, neither had received his mark upon their 
foreheads or in their hands." (Rev. xx. 4.) Those 
of whom Peter speaks as having an abundant en- 
trance into the kingdom are such as have obtained 
faith, and have been made partakers of the divine 
nature, and have escaped the corruption that is in 
the world through lust, and have given all diligence 
to add courage to their faith, and knowledge to their 
courage, and temperance to their knowledge, and 
patience to their temperance, and godliness to their 
patience, and brotherly kindness and charity to their 
godliness. (2 Pet. i, 1-11.) That servant whom the 
Lord pronounces blessed, is he whom he shall find 
''faithful and wise," and actively executing his 



FOUETH DISCOURSE. 99 

trusts. (Matt. xxiv. 45, 46.) Those who stand with 
the Lamb on Mount Zion, and sing the new song 
before the throne, are such as have the Father's 
name written in their foreheads, and preserve their 
virginity, and follow the Lamb whithersoever he 
goeth, and have no guile in their mouths, and are 
without fault. (Eev. xiv. 1-5.) Those whom Paul 
speaks of as obtaining reward in the great day are 
those who not only build upon Jesus Christ as their 
foundation, but build on that foundation gold, and 
silver, and precious stones, and not mere wood, and 
hay, and stubble. (1 Cor. iii. 11-15.) No such fit- 
ness as this has the mere natural man, nor yet the 
mere almost-Christian, nor yet the common believer 
who satisfies himself with a general conformity to 
his profession. To be a real virgin is not enough. 
To have the lamp of true profession is not enough. 
To expect and wait for the Bridegroom is not enough. 
To have been once in complete readiness is not 
enough. The lamp must be full, and trimmed, and 
burning at the time, or there is no readiness. 

Do you ask me, then, who are these wise and ready 
virgins who go in to the marriage ? I answer, they 
are those Christians living in the time of the advent, 
and those like them in every age, who have given 
themselves wholly to the Lord, with all they have 
and are; in whom the grace of Grod is so deeply 
rooted as to have brought their whole nature into 
subjection to righteousness; who have attained to 
such excellency of saintship as to be no longer babes 
and novices in religious things, but skilful in the 



100 THE PAEABLE OF THE VIEGINS. 

word of righteousness, and active in the use of the 
talents God has given them to improve for him; 
"whose profession is like a lamp well furnished, having 
an abundance of real grace to sustain it in every 
emergency, and whose testimony is given with the 
steady clearness of that lamp in perfect trim, lighted, 
and brightly burning. 

That such will be scarce and few when the Savior 
comes, is everywhere intimated. (Matt. vii. 14, xx. 
16 ; Luke xiii. 23.) He himself has put the solemn 
and awakening question, "When the Son of man 
Cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 
xviii. 8.) Were he to come as we are here together 
to-night, how many of the large number of Chris- 
tians present would be found possessed of the re- 
quired readiness? I sometimes fear that the Church 
of our day is but little more than a Church of unwise 
virgins, who, if the Bridegroom were to come sud- 
denly upon them — as he everywhere says that he will 
come — would be ill prepared to meet him. There 
will, however, be some ready, — at least, not so hope- 
lessly unfurnished as to be unable to take their 
expected places in the procession and at the feast. 
In every age there have been some whom death 
found with their lamps trimmed and burning, and 
whom the Savior will find as death left them. And 
even among those living in the evil times in which 
the advent is to occur, there will be some here and 
there, many of whom we know not, who will of a 
sudden take wings like eagles and mount up to theii 
Lord, 



FOURTH DISCOURSE. 101 

The text says of the wise and ready virgins, that 
'' they went in.'' 

In what ? In the Bridegroom's house, of course. 
Where else would he be taking his Bride but to the 
new home where she is to dwell with him ? Christ 
has gone to prepare a place for his people. When 
he left the world, he said, ^' I go to prepare a place 
for you." That place he is now completing. It is 
to be ''a firmly-founded city," — the same for which 
Abraham looked in the days of old, which Paul 
describes as 'Hhe heavenly Jerusalem," and which 
John in vision saw descending out of heaven from 
God. 

And a sublime place it is. Even its foundations 
are composed of precious gems. Its gates are each 
of solid pearl. The city itself is of "pure gold, like 
unto clear glass." Its very streets are gold, and its 
walls jasper. It has no need of the sun, nor of the 
moon ; for the glory of God lightens it, and the Lamb 
is the light thereof. Its watchmen are the angels ; 
and nations walk in the sheen of its glory. It is of 
that city that the Church so often and so wishfully 
sings, — 

"Jerusalem ! my happy home ! 
Name ever dear to me ! 
When shall my labors have an end 
In joy, and peace, and thee? 

•* When shall these eyes thy heaven-built walls 
And pearly gates behold. 
Thy bulwarks with salvation strong, 
And streets of shining gold ? 
9* 



102 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

**0h, when, thou city of my God, 
Shall I thy courts ascend. 
Where congregations ne'er break up, 
And Sabbaths have no end ?" 

Blessed city ! And into it do they enter who are 
ready when the Bridegroom comes. 

The object for which they enter is also as glorious 
as the place. The gladdest thing, perhaps, and the 
most beautiful, in earthly life, is the celebration of 
the union of two noble, virtuous, and loving hearts 
in those bonds of intimacy, communion, and mutual 
happiness which death only can sever. There gather 
round it an interest, promise, and joy which we know 
not how adequately to express. The best robes must 
then be brought forth, and the best viands set out, 
and the heartiest congratulations bestowed, and the 
greatest liberties given ; whilst full hearts flush every 
cheek and speak in every eye, and pour out their 
treasures in costly gifts, and every one for once seems 
anxious to make every other happy. But, with all 
the beautiful feeling and joyousness of such a high 
festival, it is but an earthly symbol of that for which 
the saints enter their new-made heaven. There is to 
be a marriage there such as has never yet occurred, 
and at which they are to be both the attendants and 
the Bride. Such a company as will there be as- 
sembled, whether for numbers, selectness, congenial- 
ity, or joy in each other, as yet hath never con- 
vened. Such an array of magnificence, beauty, and 
glory as shall there be made, no eye as yet hath 
ever seen. Such thrilling interest, transporting de- 



FOURTH DISCOURSE. 103 

light, and heartiness of congratulation, as shall there 
be shown, no soul as yet hath ever experienced. 
Such a table of good things, such an accumulation 
of all that heart can desire, and such an outpouring 
of all the varied bounties of the blessed God, as shall 
there be displayed, no imagination as yet hath ever 
been able to picture. 

There have, indeed, been some very magnificent 
nuptial celebrations. Plutarch tells of one at which 
the number of guests was ninety thousand. Hero- 
dotus tells of one at which a hundred oxen were 
offered in sacrifice, and the banquet of which was 
attended by all the people of Sicyon. And Diodorus 
Siculus tells of one in Agrigentum at which two 
hundred thousand people were entertained on tables 
laid for them at their own doors, in the streets where 
they lived, and during which the whole city was one 
grand blaze of joyous illumination. But all these 
vast and astounding marriage-feasts were but mean 
and ridiculous mimicries played by children, in com- 
parison with that to which the saints go in when the 
Savior comes. 

" There shall love freely flow, 

Pure as life's river; 
There shall sweet friendship glow 

Changeless forever. 
There heavenly joys shall thrill, 
There bliss each heart shall fill, 
And fears of parting chill 

Never, — no, never!" 

That feast is to be an everlasting feast. Its joys 



104 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

are as immortal as its guests; and its interest can no 
more flag than the energies of the glorified can wane. 
The Savior saith, "Him that overcometh will I 
make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall 
go no more out.'' A place at that banquet once 
gained, it shall never be lost. When the ready vir- 
gins went in, 

" The door was shut" 

It was the signal of eternal perpetuity to the 
honors to which they had attained. Henceforward 
every thing that might mar their joy or ripple the 
deep flow of their peace is forever barred out. No 
enemy of their souls can ever follow them there. No 
improper company can ever disturb them there. The 
very avenue of return to the state of sin and sor- 
row and imperfection and waiting, from which they 
came, is closed to be opened no more. They are now 
at home, — at last at home, — with Jesus at home, — in 
all the high honors and prerogatives of 'Hhe Church 
of the first-born" at home, — forever at home. 

Survey that blessedness, man, and rejoice that 
the invitation is thine to be a partaker of it all. 
And as thou art called with so high a calling, let 
nothing keep thee from the preparation needed to 
take thy place at that everlasting feast. 



|ift| gist0TOt 



THE FATE OP THE FOOLISH VIRGINS — COMMON IMPRESSIONS REFUTED 

— THEY WERE NOT LOST AUTHORITIES QUOTED — A SURVEY OF 

FACTS BEARING UPON THE PROPER EXPLANATION — DIFFERENT 

CLASSES OF THE SAVED " CHURCH OF THE FIRST-BORN" SOME 

" saved" with " loss" WHOLE CASE OF THE FOOLISH VIRGINS 

REVIEWED — NO ONE SAFE WITHOUT AIMING AT THE HIGHEST 
HONORS. 



"Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, 
open unto us. But he answered and said, Verily, I say unto you, 
I know you not." — Matt. xxv. 11, 12. 

EuDOLF Stier, whose great commentary on the 
Words of Jesus is so highly esteemed by Biblical 
interpreters, remarks, that in these words lie hidden 
general prophetic hints which the future alone will 
unseal. He has, therefore, made no attempt to ex- 
plain the fate of these unwise virgins. He agrees 
that they stand for true Christians as distinguished 
from hypocrites and false professors, and that they 
failed to go in with the Bridegroom to the marriage 
only on account of an unreadiness at the moment, 
which they very soon had repaired. He says that 
they came too late, and were ''left behind only for 
this time." But what became of them he does not 
pretend to say. 

105 



106 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

It seems to me, however, that, if the distinguished 
doctor had undertaken an explanation, he would not 
have found the subject so closely sealed, after all. 
Without expecting to clear up every point, or to 
answer every question that may be raised concerning 
it, I will endeavor to go through this part of the 
parable, as I have gone through the other parts, 
gathering up what rays of light may be brought to 
bear upon it from other portions of Scripture, and 
setting it forth in its connections with the general 
scheme of the Divine purposes. The integrity of 
this exposition depends in some measure upon a rea- 
sonable explanation of the fate of these unready and 
belated virgins; and the interest which has been 
excited on the part of some respecting it demands 
that I should not withhold what I have to say 
upon it. 

It is a common impression that these unwise vir- 
gins, having been shut out from the marriage, were 
lost, or represent such as are finally and forever 
excluded from the favor of God and the blessings of 
redemption. Many think that the door that was 
shut against them was the door of mercy and sal- 
vation, and that Christ's refusal to know them as 
his Bride was an everlasting refusal to know them 
in any gracious capacity. But this view of the case 
so weakens the meaning of some of the most im- 
portant terms and figures employed by the Savior, 
and so entirely ignores certain very marked items in 
the parabolic narrative, and interpolates such terrific 
penalties where the Author of the parable has in- 



FIFTH DISCOURSE. 107 

serted none, that the best expositors have rejected it. 
It cannot be maintained either on exegetical or moral 
grounds, and would find no acceptance but for the 
narrow and imperfect views of the grand scheme of 
Providence with which the Church has been too 
willing to satisfy itself. It conflicts with the justice 
of God's administrations, that "virgins" should be 
visited with the same doom as " sorcerers, and whore- 
mongers, and murderers, and idolaters." It is irre- 
concilable with the humility, honesty, and charity of 
true saints that they should give such advice as these 
unfurnished virgins received in the hour of their 
perplexity, if their case was already and forever 
hopelessly decided. It is also a reflection upon the 
goodness of the Savior himself, to suppose that any 
should come to him at any time, as these virgins 
finally did, with their virginity preserved and the 
oil no longer wanting in their lamps, and be repulsed 
with the condemnation of the dissolute and the 
graceless. 

And, as these virgins do not cease to be virgins, 
and every change in their case from the time of the 
midnight cry is in the direction of improvement, how 
can their portion be other than that which appertains 
to virgins ? They are delivered from their folly, as 
intimated in the fact that they are no longer called 
** foolish." They also procure the requisite supplies 
of oil. And though these preparations are efi'ected 
too late for them to move with the bridal party or 
to share in the marriage, that does not exclude them 
from the proper claims of virginity, and from all kind 



108 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

regard from Him who was once willing to make them 
his Bride. When a man marries a maiden, all others 
are, of course, excluded from being his wife, but they 
are not therefore to be held and reprobated as un- 
chaste and forever excluded from his friendship and 
respect. No such logic ever applies in the ordinary 
aflPairs of life. Common sense would repudiate it as 
the height of folly and injustice. Why, then, insist 
on forcing it into our interpretations of the word of 
God? There is also a great incongruity and self- 
contradiction in assigning to these virgins " the 
blackness of darkness" whilst they retain their lamps 
all filled, trimmed, and brightly burning. How can 
he walk in darkness who has a lighted flambeau in 
his hand ? 

The answer of the Bridegroom to these virgins, 
when they came praying to be admitted to the mar- 
riage, upon first view might seem to imply that mercy 
had clean gone from them. Somewhat similar lan- 
guage is used elsewhere, in such evident connection 
with judicial exclusion from all further interest in 
the Savior's mercies, that we are hence, perhaps, too 
much predisposed, without sufficient evidence, to take 
what is here said by the Bridegroom as if it were the 
same. In three instances, and once in writing, since 
I commenced remarking on this parable, have I been 
asked what I make of the Savior's saying to these 
unwise virgins, ^^ I never knew you." My answer is, 
that I make nothing of it, as the Savior has not said 
so. The words are simply, ^' I know you not," — and 
these uttered, not as a judge passing final sentence, 



FIFTH DISCOUESE. 109 

but as a Bridegroom explaining why he could ac- 
knowledge no further applicants to be his Bride, no 
matter how well qualified they might be for such a 
position. The words thus mistakenly inserted are 
from quite a different discourse, where they are used 
with reference to very different characters. They 
are from the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, 
(and in substance repeated again in Luke xiii. 25-27,) 
where Christ says, '* Many will say to me in that 
day. Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy 
name ? and in thy name have cast out devils ? and 
in thy name have done many wonderful works ? And 
then I will profess unto them, / never knew you : 
depart from me, ye that work iniquity." (Matt. vii. 
22, 23.) The persons here described are not virgins, 
but evil-doers and workers of iniquity, self-deceivers 
and hypocrites of the most wicked sort. Their ''Lord 
Lord!" is not, as in this parable, the call of affec- 
tionate and humble entreaty, but the language of 
adjuration and insolent questioning. The basis of 
acceptance which they propose is not that of a pure 
life and the grace of God earnestly sought as directed, 
as in the case of these virgins, but a vain presumption, 
and overweening confidence in associations and powers 
which do not at all touch the real heart and quick of 
Christian experience. There is also a wide difference 
between the final sentence of a judge pronounced 
upon a criminal at his bar, and the answer of a bride- 
groom to certain belated maidens who came after the 
wedding asking to be received as his bride. In the 
one case, guiltiness and unfitness constitute the dis- 

10 



110 THE PAEABLE OP THE VIPaiNS. 

ability ; in the other, the greatest purity and fitness 
on earth would be unavailing, for the reason that the 
man is already married. His simple announcement 
that they have come too late to be his wife, and that, 
having missed their time, he can no longer acknow- 
ledge them as his betrothed, in no way shuts the 
door to his recognition of them in some other capa- 
city. Though they can never partake of the marriage 
honors and endowments, they may still be his friends, 
and hold high places in his favor and esteem, and in 
ulterior adjudications still not lose such an acknow- 
ledgment as would save them. Nor am I alone in 
this view of the case. Olshausen says, '^ It is clear 
that the words, I know you not, cannot denote eternal 
condemnation. The foolish virgins are only excluded 
from the marriage of the Lamb, . . . but are not 
thereby deprived of eternal happiness." Stier also 
agrees that '' a further hope as regards the last end 
must remain." Dean Alford also concurs in the same. 
So, too, the Theological and Literary Journal, in an 
article on this parable.* 

It is not, however, the opinion of these expositors, 

* See Olshausen's Commentary, Stier's Words of Jesus, and Al- 
ford's Greek Testament in loc, and vol. viii. of the Journal, p, 191, 
in which last place it is said, " That that which the foolish virgins 
lacked was actually obtained by them afterwards, though too late 
to allow their admission to the banquet, implies that that wMch 
those whom they denote are to lack, is something which they are 
to obtain afterwards, though not in time to allow their admission 
to the supper of the Lamb." 

The same view is also maintained by Poiret, [Div. (Econ.,) Von 
Mayer, (Blatter filr hohere Wahrheit, and others.) 



FIFTH DISCOUESE. Ill 

nor would I have you for one moment suppose, that 
the '' further hope" of the belated virgins is the hope 
of having the deficiencies of the present life repaired 
after death. When a man once passes beyond the 
theatre of time, I know of no authority upon which 
to rest the belief that the pardon and grace which 
he neglected or despised in this world are still open 
to him, or that any possibility remains for retrieving 
the errors and follies of his life in the flesh. No man, 
of course, can trace the limits of the Divine mercies 
or set bounds to the operations of the Savior's grace ; 
but the whole tenor of revelation seems to be that 
death puts an everlasting seal of fixedness upon moral 
character, and carries with it the decree, '' He that is 
unjust, let him be unjust still ; and he which is filthy, 
let him be filthy still ; and he that is righteous, let 
him be righteous still ; and he that is holy, let him 
be holy still." (Rev. xxii. 11.) In the parable of 
the rich man and Lazarus, an impassable gulf is 
represented as separating between the believing and 
the unsanctified, to which also the strongest expres- 
sions of permanence are applied. And if there were 
no hope for these virgins but that which bases itself 
•upon a reparation of deficiencies to be made in the 
state after death, I should despair of their ever being 
other than eternally lost. The scene amid which 
they replenished their exhausted stock of oil is, in 
general, the same as that in which they obtained 
their first supplies. Those to whom they were sent 
could be none else than those from whom they bought 
at the beginning. And the whole transaction must 



112 THE PAEABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

needs relate to the earthly life, and not to the dis- 
embodied or post-resurrection state. 

But; in order to obtain a proper conception of the 
fate of these unwise virgins, it will be necessary to 
take a wider survey of the matters involved. 

Let it be observed, then, in the first place, that the 
Scriptures do contemplate the world as continuing, 
and men in the flesh as abiding on it, after Christ 
comes. The Savior's advent will neither end the 
existence of the earth nor cut short the continuance 
of the race upon it. There will be many changes, 
and the population of the earth will be extensively 
diminished, by the translation of the saints, on the 
one hand, and the destruction of Antichrist and the 
wicked powers under him, on the other. But very 
many of those alive at the time will continue. The 
Jews, as a nation, are not to be restored till after 
Christ comes, and must, therefore, continue. Even 
those who are to be most efficient in forwarding the 
final regathering of Israel are to be persons who "es- 
cape" the terrific judgments which Christ will inflict 
upon his enemies at his coming. (Isa. Ixvi. 15-20.) As 
we are specifically told that the translation will not 
embrace all, — that only some will be "taken," while 
others are " left," (Matt. xxiv. 40, 41,) — so we are 
informed with equal explicitness that the destruc- 
tion will not by any means include all who are not 
translated. Great shall be the tribulation that will 
then come upon the world, — so great that " except 
those days should be shortened there should no flesh 
be saved; but," the Savior says, ^^ those days shall 



FIFTH DISCOURSE. 113 

be shortened" (Matt. xxiv. 22,) and hence, by neces- 
sary implication, that some flesh shall be saved ; 
that is, made to survive those judgments, as mil- 
lions of the Jews survived the destruction which be- 
fell their nation for its rejection of Christ. And 
among those who are '* left" when the translation 
occurs, and '^ saved" when the judgment of the 
" nations" takes place, will be a great number of 
feeble Christians, who are none other than these un- 
wise virgins, who had not oil enough to be ready 
when their more provident comrades were "taken." 

Again, the Scriptures leave room for the belief 
that repentance and deliverance from the penalty and 
power of sin will be no less possible in the age which 
is to come than in the present dispensation. Indeed, 
the great turning of Israel from their ungodliness to 
the true Messiah, of which the prophets say so much, 
and the grand revival which it is to introduce all 
over the world, is distinctly placed after the advent, 
and within the future dispensation. It is only after 
" he" [the Judge] " shall come down," and " shall 
have dominion also from sea to sea," that " they that 
dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him," and 
that "he shall redeem their soul from deceit and vio- 
lence." (Ps. Ixxii. 14.) 

The Savior himself has also given utterance to a 
text which has very important bearings upon this 
point. Speaking of the sin of blasphemy against the 
Holy Ghost, he says, "Whosoever speaketh a word 
against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him, 
[shall be pardonable;] but whosoever speaketh 

10* 



114 THE PAEABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, 
[shall not be pardonable,] neither in this world, 
neither in the world to come." (Matt. xii. 31, 32.) 
For strength of expression and fearfulness of import, 
these are among the Savior's most powerful words. 
They describe an offence which they pronounce, now 
and forever, beyond all possibility of pardon. But 
along with this terrific announcement there clings 
the implication, which no legitimate exegesis can ex- 
clude, that for all grades of human guilt short of this, 
as there is forgiveness now, so there will be also here- 
after. So Augustine, Gregory, Bernard, Olshausen, 
and many more, construe the passage. 

It is a mistake, however, to understand ''the world 
to come" to be Hades, or the realm of the dead, — as 
though persons dying in sin may yet be pardoned 
and saved. There is here no reference to the state 
after death, unless, perhaps, in a very remote way 
and to a very slight extent. The phrase '' world to 
come" is -nowhere in Scripture applied to the in- 
visible abode of the dead. Though many deaths are 
referred to, not a saint is ever spoken of as having 
gone or come to that ''world." Not one of the sacred 
writers in the remotest degree has connected to- 
gether death and entrance into "the world to come." 
Indeed, to the great majority of the human family 
Hades is not a future world at all, and was not at 
the time the Savior spoke these words. Except to 
those now living, it is a, pi^esent world, — a world that 
has already come, and which cannot be properly 
spoken of as so completely future as that of which 



FIFTH DISCOURSE. 115 

the Savior here spea.ks. Besides, the word does not 
strictly mean world. The original is o.ccov, age, dis- 
pensation, order of things."^ The two ''worlds" re- 
ferred to are simply two sections of time, two pe- 
riods, two eras of the Divine administrations, and 
those on the same general theatre and in the history 
of the same affairs, — not two distinct scenes of being 
and modes of existence. The Scriptures also speak 
everywhere of '' the world to come" as an age of 
time which belongs to the whole Church, which no 
one member reaches before another, and which em- 
braces the hidden and spiritual only as connected 
with the visible and earthly. Men, in the glorified 
state, will be concerned in it, as angels have been 
concerned in former dispensations ; but it is the visi- 
ble world on which it is to rise, and it is the affairs 
of the visible world of which it is to be another form 
of administration. Paul characterizes it by a word 
which makes this very clear. He calls it '' the 
ocxoufjLSv/j to come." This term is never applied to 
Hades, or to any invisible or supernal realm. It 
means the inhabited earth, the visible world of living 
people. It is never used with reference to heaven, 
and cannot with any propriety be so applied. It 
fixes '' the world to come" to our own globe, and to 
an economy investing it, — -just as the Eoman empire 
and the world in which the apostles were sent to 
preach — which are denoted by the same word — be- 
longed to the literal visible abode of man. The thing 

* The Berlenburg Bible renders it "Weltlauf," and " Jetzigen 
Weltzeit," — this course of the world, the present period of the ivorld. 



116 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

meant is simply another era and economy in God's 
eternal kingdom upon the earth. The epoch of its 
commencement is that of the second coming of Christ, 
at which all present orders and commissions cease. 
** This world," then, as distinguished from that world, 
is simply the present dispensation, — the order of 
things which now governs, — the gospel economy, 
which had already been introduced when these 
words were spoken, and which was the subject of 
such blasphemous opposition on the part of those 
to whom they were addressed. It is the same under 
which we still live, and which will remain until the 
Savior comes. 

I therefore take the passage as clearly teaching 
these four things : — First, that there is to be another 
dispensation of the affairs of the kingdom of God 
upon earth after the present; second, that the sin 
against the Holy Ghost shall not be pardonable, 
either in this dispensation or in that by which it is 
to be succeeded ; third, that in both these dispensa- 
tions all other sins are pardonable upon repentance 
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ ; and fourth, that, 
accordingly, the unreadiness in which the coming of 
Christ shall overtake many Christians then living 
need not be viewed as cutting them off from ultimate 
salvation, nor yet from very exalted excellencies in 
the kingdom, notwithstanding that it excludes them 
forever from all the peculiar joys and dignities of 
the marriage. 

Again, it is to be noted that the Scriptures teach 
that there are differences of grade and position among 



FIFTH DISCOURSE. 117 

the saved. They are not all to be of one class or 
order. As " there is one glory of the sun, and an- 
other glory of the moon, and another glory of the 
stars, and one star differeth from another star in 
glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead." (ICor. 
XV. 41, 42.) Even the little company of apostles was 
arranged in different circles or groups. There was 
one circle which embraced the favored three — Peter, 
James, and John — whom the Savior took into spe- 
cial nearness to his own person, — the honored triad 
whom he chose from among the rest to witness his 
transfiguration on the mount, his miracle in the 
house of Jairus, and his agony in the garden. There 
was the larger group, of a more common grade, who 
moved in a remoter and less important circle. And 
even in the high circle of the three there was a still 
narrower circle, embracing only the heavenly-minded 
John, who lay upon the Savior's breast and was 
known as "that disciple whom Jesus loved." The 
apostles, as a class, are also appointed to a peculiar 
rulership. And so even the better grades of Chris- 
tians do not all receive alike, but are assigned to dif- 
ferent spheres and degrees of dignity. One receives 
"authority over ten cities," and another "authority 
over five cities," each according to his attainments 
in grace and his works and sufferings for Christ. 
(Luke xix. 16-19.) 

But, beyond all these diversities, there is a still 
broader line of distinction, which divides the whole 
body of the saved into two grand classes, — the one 
embracing all who attain to rulership and priesthood, 



118 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

and the other such as are without these honors. To 
be saved at all will be a great and blessed thing. 
Even the '* least in the kingdom of heaven" will be 
very great, — " greater than John the Baptist," who 
was the greatest that had been born of women. 
(Matt. xi. 11.) The lowest place is well worth all 
the efforts that we may bestow upon it, and will re- 
quire a great deal more earnestness of endeavor than 
many professing Christians are devoting to their high 
calling. But the '' least in the kingdom of heaven" 
will be far inferior in position, authority, and honor 
to those who attain to the princedoms of that sublime 
empire. There are to be kings and priests in that 
kingdom, who shall bear rule next to Christ himself; 
and there will be others whose places will be only 
those of attendants and servants, — not menials, in- 
deed, but not such as bear rule nor such as partake 
of the proper honors of the kingdom. 

We read in Hebrews of " the Church of the first- 
born," (xii. 23.) There is something very significant 
in this phrase. Among nearly all nations the first- 
born are assigned special privileges. Under the law, 
the first-born had a double portion of the inherit- 
ance, and a pre-eminence and rule over their breth- 
ren. (Deut. xxi. 17; 2 Chron. xxi. 3.) The priest- 
hood also belonged of right to the first-born, until 
that of Aaron was established. " The Church of the 
first-born," then, is the congregation of those to 
whom superior advantages and prerogatives apper- 
tain, — the advantages of a double portion and the 
prerogatives of rulership and priesthood. But the 



FIFTH DISCOURSE. 119 

Church of " the first-horn' presupposes a Church of 
the after-horn^ also, or a class of Christians to whom 
no such advantages and honors belong. They too 
are children, and inherit as well as the rest; but 
their inheritance is less, and they have no official 
rights. 

In the parable of the pounds we also read of a 
servant who was no less a servant than his fellow- 
servants, and altogether distinguished from the '' citi- 
zens" among whom he was to trade. This servant 
neither lost nor squandered the money that had been 
given him. He, however, behaved so unprofitably 
toward his trust that it was eventually taken from 
him, and no reward or rulership was given him as to 
his more industrious and faithful fellows. No man 
can take the parable and say that this servant repre- 
sents such as shall finally perish. He is not among 
those '' enemies" whom the Lord commands to be 
brought forth and slain. He simply loses his official 
trust, and fails to be rewarded with dominion, — a pic- 
ture of those who are '' least in the kingdom of hea- 
ven," and come short of the superior distinctions of 
''the Church of the first-born." 

Again, Paul tells of certain persons who build 
upon the true foundation, which is Christ, and there- 
fore are true Christians, but whose works are mere 
" wood, hay, and stubble," which cannot stand the 
day of trial, and who, consequently, lose every in- 
vestment which they thus make. They '' suffer loss," 
he says, and a very great loss; but they do not 
therefore fail of salvation. The record is, that they 



120 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

themselves ''shall he saved; yet so as by fire," (1 Cor. 
iii. 11-15.) They do not fall into the condemnation 
of the wicked. They are not cast out with '' the fear- 
ful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murder- 
ers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, 
and all liars." (Rev. xxi. 8.) They '' shall hQ saved.'' 
But they receive no "reward." To be saved is one 
thing; to be rei(;arc?ec? is another. The one is through 
the grace of God only ; the other is according to works 
and attainments only. The persons here described 
secure the one but lose the other. Priesthood and 
dominion they never reach. They are altogether of 
a different class from those whose works are " gold, 
silver, and precious stones." They are people who get 
no "authority," and who fail to reach the honors of the 
kingdom, — showing two separate orders of the saved. 
The same distinction is also inferable from the 
figure on which this parable is based, and which is 
so generally employed in the Scriptures. Christ is 
the Bridegroom. He has his Bride. This involves 
a preference of some whom he has selected from 
among his friends, whom he promotes to peculiar 
honors and nearness to himself, who are so identified 
with him as to share in all that he has and is, and 
who sit with him on his throne as his Queen, par- 
taking with him in all his regal glory. But where 
there is such a princely marriage, the presence of 
others besides the Bridegroom and his Bride is im- 
plied. Servants and attendants are presupposed. 
Even in the " house," where their new and united 
life is supposed to commence, the picture is not com- 



FIFTH DISCOURSE. 121 

plete without embracing others besides themselves, 
to do their bidding and aid in making up their es- 
tate. The Bride is one class ; the servants are an- 
other class. The Bride partakes directly in all that 
the Bridegroom possesses, and is completely one with 
him; the servants are not without much in which to 
be glad, but have none of the peculiar prerogatives 
of the Bride. They come not so near to Christ, 
They have no authority to command. Their posi- 
tion is secondary and inferior. And as the Bride 
is made up of Christians who are ready when the 
Savior comes, so the attendants and servants of the 
Bride are such Christians as have but imperfectly 
improved their opportunities, and are found unready 
when the Savior comes, — who cannot, indeed, be 
reckoned with those whom he " never knew," but 
who, on the other hand, cannot be acknowledged in 
the attitude and dignities of the Bride and partners 
with him of his throne. 

It seems to me from these observations that we are 
now not only prepared to answer the question as to 
what became of these improvident virgins, but that 
their case begins to gather a luminousness which 
imparts additional clearness to the whole parable. 
They are virgins, and therefore pure people, — real 
Christians, not mere pretenders and self-deceivers. 
They went out to meet the Bridegroom, — had caught 
the true spirit of Christian hope, and had in their 
souls the quickening life of true gospel faith. They 
took their lamps with them, in company with others 
called and moved as themselves, and so witnessed a 

11 



122 THE PAEABLE OF THE VIEGINS. 

good confession in orderly connection witli the com- 
mon household of believers. They had oil in their 
lamps ; so that their profession was one which had a 
genuine basis, fed and sustained by a real unction 
from the Holy One. They maintained their position 
of waiting for the Bridegroom even through all his 
long tarrying, and had their lamps lit and burning to 
the moment that the clamor of his arrival fell on 
their ears ; which proves that they were no more 
apostates than hypocrites, but persevering and 
patient Christians, holding on to their profession, in 
some sort, to the end. But they had no oil except 
what their lamps contained ; that is, they had made 
no efforts to carry their preparation in holy things 
beyond the ordinary understanding of what is im- 
plied in a Christian profession, and were not careful 
to aim at the higher and more uncommon degrees of 
consecration and attainment. When the Bridegroom 
came, they found that this was not enough to carry 
them through to the marriage; showing that mere 
common saintship is not sufficient to entitle to the 
sublime privileges and rewards of " the Bride — the 
Lamb's wife" — and to the royalties of the "great in 
the kingdom of heaven." They were in much per- 
plexity and perturbation, and cast about to replenish 
their stores, hoping that there might perchance still 
be time to get ready; showing what stirring and con- 
founding discoveries of our follies and deficiencies the 
coming of the day of the Lord will have even upon 
Christians, and how many will be hurried to all sorts 
of resorts in the last extremity to repair their neg- 



FIFTH DISCOURSE. 123 

lects. They went to buy oil, but while they went 
the Bridegroom came, and the procession passed; 
showing that it will be vain in the last hour to at- 
tempt to atone for the imperfections of a life not 
thoroughly consecrated to God. True, they got the 
supplies for which they went, but it was too late for 
the purposes intended ; teaching us that the coming 
of Christ is not to revoke the means of grace, nor to 
cut off all further opportunities of repentance and 
improvement from those who shall then be left upon 
the earth, but showing at the same time that no peni- 
tence or excellencies of attainment after Christ once 
comes can ever retrieve the losses of not being ready 
at the time he does come. They afterward came, 
hoping to be admitted to the marriage, but found 
the door shut ; showing that when Christ comes the 
number of his elect will be complete, and all further 
negotiations for the high privileges of the Bride will 
have been closed. They earnestly prayed to be ad- 
mitted, and besought the Lord to open to them, but 
he refused, and would not know them now as having 
the least claim to the marriage either as a matter of 
right on their part or of favor on his ; exhibiting to 
us how keen and torturing will be the sense of loss 
on the part of those Christians who fail to be ready 
for the high honors to which they have been called, 
and how inexorable then will be that Lord whose 
sublime proposals they have treated with such super- 
ficial concern and such a feeble consent. They had 
hoped to participate in the marriage and to be among 
those who constitute the Bride, but they were too 



124 THE PAEABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

inconsiderate in their preparation and too improvi- 
dent in their arrangements to be ready at the time : 
and the palaces of the first-born they failed to enter. 
Having foolishly neglected to supply themselves 
with a sufiicient stock of self-sacrificing devotion, 
they were left to find companionship with lower ranks, 
and to take their places with those whose works 
are burned. Their " crowns" others " take." " Ee- 
ward" they receive not. Though "saved," "with 
shame" they are made to " take the lowest room." 
They are not slain with the Lord's "enemies," but 
they are not invested with dominion, as their better 
and more faithful fellow-servants. They are not 
deprived of shelter somewhere in the " many man- 
sions" of the " Father's house," but a place on that 
high mount where "the hundred and forty-four 
thousand" first-fruit "virgins" stand before the 
throne of God, they never reach. Though children, 
and not wholly disinherited, they belong to the con- 
gregation of the after-born, whose portion is but one- 
half that of the rest and is attended with no rights of 
rulership and no priestly dignities. The inheritance 
of the one class is co-heirship of all things with Christ; 
the inheritance of the other class is simply salva- 
tion, with none of the princely distinctions and sub- 
limer beatitudes with which a meek and faultless life 
and a proper investment of holy deeds and activities 
for Christ can adorn it. They reach the plain of " the 
common salvation," (Jude 3,) but they are not permit- 
ted to ascend the mountain-summits of exaltation and 
glory which spring from that plain into higher heavens. 



FIFTH DISCOURSE. 125 

It occurs to me to remark, here, that it has been 
suggested whether this view of the case might not 
rock the cradle of carnal security, and tend to quiet 
some people into contentment with inadequate prepa- 
ration for heaven. It has been thought that it might 
perhaps encourage some to say, — as many are already 
too prone to say, — " Well, we know that we do not 
live right ; but, if foolish virgins are saved, there is 
hope for us, and we need be no further alarmed." But 
I submit it whether there is any thing in this expla- 
nation tending in the least to beget in you such feel- 
ings or conclusions. I do not believe that it is pos- 
sible to make such inferences from what I have 
been saying, except by gross perversion of my words, 
— for which I am not responsible. I have not let 
down the conditions of eternal life one single jot. 
I have all along been insisting that these improvident 
virgins were Christians, — real Christians, Christians 
of a very decided character. Christians who had and 
did and experienced all that is written of their wiser 
comrades, except that the amount of oil they had was 
not enough to carry them into the marriage. Not a 
word have I uttered to give the impression that sal- 
vation is to be had on any other terms than those 
of a true, sincere, and heart-renewing Christianity. 
This parable shows nobody saved but "virgins;" by 
which I can understand none other than really pure 
people, — people in whom the true faith of the gospel 
has become living and practical, — people who have 
been cleansed by the blood of Jesus and beautified by 
his heavenly grace. If any are in a condition lower 

11* 



126 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

than this, they are not ''virgins," and can find no 
hope or comfort from this or any other portion of 
Scripture. Instead of reducing the requirements so 
as to make men think they can be saved by less 
activity, watchfulness, and consecration to God, the 
whole tenor of my remarks, as the whole object of 
this parable, has been to show that unless we all put 
forth more earnest efforts, and set ourselves to ex- 
hibit more of that apostolic spirit which lays every 
thing on the altar of Christ, our places in the king- 
dom, if we get there at all, will be those of " hewers 
of wood and drawers of water" (Josh. ix. 19, 20) 
rather than those of kings and princes. The whole 
strain is one of the most awakening sort, as the 
Savior meant that it should be. It is to show us 
that we do vainly dream of inheriting the judge- 
ships and princedoms of the world to come, without 
a corresponding depth of devotion and completeness 
of consecration to our Lord. The word is, not that 
we can reach heaven with less, but that we can only 
rise to the rewards and honors of heaven by more. 
An honest filling out of the common Christian pro- 
fession may save us, but it will not put us into " the 
Church of the first-born," nor fit us to go in to the 
marriage when the Bridegroom comes. It is only 
hard service that brings reward, and a real bearing 
of the cross that secures the crown. The men of 
easy Christianity, whose religion costs them no 
pains, no self-denial, and no sacrifices, may per- 
chance get to heaven; but they shall never reign 
as kings, and they are not such as shall be present 



FIFTH DISCOURSE. 127 

at the marriage of the Lamb or share the high 
honors of his Bride. 

In most awakening power, therefore, does this 
parable speak to every one of us. It shows us high 
honors to be obtained, for which it invites all of us 
to become competitors. It points us to the sublimest 
dignities of heaven as within our reach if we adopt 
the right measures to secure them. But it tells us 
plainly that unless we lay by more than that which 
currently passes for true Christianity, and augment 
our stock of self-denying consecration beyond what 
is the common import of our profession, we shall be 
left behind when the Savior comes, and at best only 
be saved at a loss which shall damage our joys for- 
ever. 

Let each one, then, arouse himself, and earnestly 
press for the highest prize, lest, by being content to 
aim at less, he fail altogether. 



Bmt\ W^smx$t 



THE APPLICATION — DUTY OF WATCHFULNESS — THE OBJECT TO 
WHICH IT IS TO BE DIRECTED — WHAT IS IMPLIED IN IT — GENE- 
RAL STATEMENT OF THE LESSONS INCULCATED BY THIS PARABLE 
— CONCLUSION. 



"Watch, therefore; for ye know neither the day nor the hour 
wherein the Son of man cometh." — Matt. xxv. 13. 

These words bring us to the practical application 
of this parable, and the object for which it was 
given. And as the crisis of it is the coming of the 
Bridegroom, so the essence of its teaching is to en- 
force the duty of watchfulness for that great event. 

It is also remarkable how full and pointed the 
Scriptures are in holding forth and impressing this 
particular duty. The Savior enjoins it over and 
over, with the utmost solemnity and urgency. 
*' "Watch," says he, "for ye know not what hour 
your Lord doth come." "Know this, that if the 
good-man of the house had known in what watch 
the thief would, come, he would have watched, and 
would not have suffered his house to be broken up. 
Therefore be ye also ready ; for in such an hour as 
ye think not, the Son of man cometh." Then comes 
this awakening parable to enforce these admonitions, 
to which it is added, "Watch, therefore; for ye 

12S 



SIXTH DISCOURSE. 129 

know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son 
of man cometh." In Mark, again, he says, '' Take ye 
heed, watch and pray ; for ye know not when the 
time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a 
far journey, who left his house, and gave authority 
to his servants, and to every man his work, and 
commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye, there- 
fore ; for ye know not when the master of the house 
cometh, — at even, or at midnight, or at the cock- 
crowing, or in the morning : lest coming suddenly 
he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I 
say unto all, Watch." (Mark xiii. 33-37.) So, again, 
in Luke, ''Let your loins be girded about, and your 
lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men 
that wait for their lord when he will return from 
the wedding ; that, when he cometh and knocketh, 
they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are 
those servants whom the lord when he cometh shall 
find watching." (Luke xii. 35-37.) And again, 
" Take heed to yourselves, lest that day come upon 
you unawares ; for as a snare shall it come on all 
them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. 
Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may 
be accounted worthy to escape all those things that 
shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of 
man." (Luke xxi. 34-36.) So, also, writes St. Paul, 
''Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day 
should overtake you as a thief: ye are all the chil- 
dren of the light, and of the day : we are not of the 
night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, 
as do others; but let us watch and be sober." 



130 THE PARABLE OF THE VIEQINS. 

(1 Thess. V. 4-6.) And again, in the Revelation of 
John, the Savior shouts back even from heaven, 
saying, "Behold, I come as a thief: blessed is he that 
watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk 
naked, and they see his shame." (Rev. xvi. 15.) 

A duty so repeatedly and earnestly enjoined must 
be of the very highest importance and of the very 
deepest necessity. It becomes us, therefore, to look 
at it with seriousness and to give to it our devout 
consideration. 

Let us look,/rs^, at the object with reference to 
which this watchfulness is to be exercised. That 
object is, the coming of the Son of man. The clause 
of the text which speaks of this has, indeed, been 
rejected by some as an interpolation. It is not found 
in the Vulgate, Syriac, Arabic, Persic, and Ethiopic 
versions. It is also wanting in three of Beza's 
copies. But nearly all the Greek copies contain it, 
— also Munster's Hebrew Gospel. But, whether it 
belongs to the original or not, it is very plainly im- 
plied. The watching enjoined has no other object 
expressed, and none other can be gathered from its 
surroundings. The subject of the parable is pre- 
eminently that of the coming of the Son of man, as 
it is also that of the whole chapter, of that which 
precedes it, and of the Church's hope. The watch- 
ing inculcated is specifically urged as a practical 
deduction from the parable and the general subject 
of discourse. And the whole connection is broken 
by any other interpretation than that which is con- 
tained in the received reading. I therefore take the 



SIXTH DISCOURSE. 131 

text as it stands, and shall so insist on it, — and the 
more confidently, as the numerous parallel passages 
to which I have referred all specifically designate 
the second coming of the Son of man as the object 
toward which this watching is to be directed. 

It has come to be the fashion in modern Chris- 
tianity to adopt a very different strain of exhorta- 
tion on this subject. It is seldom that preachers are 
heard urging on their people to watch for the coming 
of the Son of man. Death is the event to which 
men are referred, in connection with these passages, 
as to all intents and purposes the coming of Christ, 
at least to the individual. And there are some points 
in which the two concur. It is where death leaves 
a man that the coming of the Savior will find him. 
Nor is it unscriptural, in general discourse, to over- 
leap the interval altogether, and to ply the con- 
science with the admonitions of the gospel the same 
as if the moment of death brought with it all the 
great transactions of the last day. But it is a mis- 
take, and one fraught with much practical mischief, 
to treat of death as if that were the thing to be 
looked to, and of which to interpret the many solemn 
injunctions of Scripture with reference to the coming 
again of Christ. It is proper enough to swallow up 
death in the scenes of the great day ; but it is wholly 
unwarrantable to allow the scenes of that day to be 
swallowed up in our contemplations of death. Death, 
whether in itself or in its immediate consequences, 
is altogether a diff'erent thing from the coming of 
Christ. Nor is it at all fitted to take the place in 



132 THE PAEABLE OF THE VIEGINS. 

our thoughts and exhortations which belongs to the 
coming of the Son of man. It has less attractive- 
ness ; it is weaker in practical impressiveness ; and 
it presents a narrower, darker, more legal, and less 
evangelical circle of ideas. And to put it forward 
in our contemplations instead of the prospect of the 
personal coming of the Lord Jesus, is to put a gloss 
upon the Scriptures which they were never intended 
to wear, to foist our judgment into the place of 
Divine wisdom, and to destroy one of the most beau- 
tiful collocations of sacred truth. 

It is not enough, my friends, that we embrace all 
the doctrines of Christianity in our creed. We must 
at the same time receive them in their proper order 
and revealed connections. We cannot take the pre- 
cepts and representations which are given in con- 
nection with the coming of Christ, and apply them 
all to death, and then say that we believe in the 
coming of the Son of man as the Scriptures present 
that doctrine. Proper submission to the authority 
of revelation requires us to receive its teachings in 
the connections in which God's word places them. 
And when we are told to watch for the coming of 
the Son of man, to apply the exhortation to death, 
and at the same time to put away the subject of the 
personal advent among articles of no direct practical 
concern, is to put asunder what God hath joined 
together, and to undertake to adjust the relations of 
Divine truth in a way which he has not authorized. 

So far from making death the great terminus, the 
generalizations under which the gospel views things 



SIXTH DISCOURSE. 133 

quite overlook it. Starting with the first advent, the 
prospect stretches uninterruptedly onward to the 
second. The Christian Church is contemplated as 
one, unmutilated, ever-continuing, until Christ him- 
self comes, and grace ends in glory. Death is not 
known in the case, and never once appears upon the 
whole length of the way, except as, here and there, 
a shadow, which hinders nothing and to which no 
attention is paid. Looking at some of the most 
vigorous and precious passages in which we find the 
whole course of Christianity surveyed, it would be 
impossible to learn from them alone that death had 
any existence. Take this from Hebrews : — "Christ 
was once ofi'ered to bear the sins of many ; and unto 
them that look for him shall he appear the second 
time without sin, unto salvation." Death and judg- 
ment are referred to in immediate proximity with 
these words, but only in connection with the course 
of sin; whilst the course of the Christian is made to 
reach back to Christ on the cross, in which it takes 
its rise, and forward to his coming again in the glory 
of the Father, in which it reaches its goal, with no- 
thing coming between but the life of faith and hope. 
Take also this, from the epistle to Titus : — '' The 
grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared 
unto all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness 
and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, 
and godly in this present world; looking for that 
blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of the great 
God and our Savior Jesus Christ." Here, again, 
death is quite ignored, and the present world is made 

12 



134 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

to touch directly upon the scenes of the appearing 
again of Christ, as the great and only event to which 
the Christian looks, next after his apprehension of 
Jesus as his Savior. Two appearings are spoken 
of, — the one looked back to, as bringing salvation, 
the other directly anticipated, as the completion of 
it. The one is grace, the other, glory. By con- 
forming to the proposals brought to us in the first, 
we hopefully await the second. And between these 
two. Christian life is sustained, with nothing more 
to separate it from the object of its anticipations in 
the future than from the object of its faith in the 
past. It is, therefore, a sad disjointing of the 
scriptural adjustments of sacred truth, and an at- 
tempt to construct and sustain Christian life upon 
foundations and supports somewhat other than those 
appointed, to thrust death in as one of the great 
themes of evangelical incentive, or as a prominent 
subject in evangelical contemplations of the future. 
Death belongs to sin and the curse, not to the gospel 
and salvation ; and no one can substitute it, in any 
respect or degree, for '' that blessed hope, even the 
glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior 
Jesus Christ," without damage to true evangelism, 
and great weakening in the motive-powers of Chris- 
tian piety. 

And, for this very reason, preaching about death, 
which is usually accepted as the most pathetic, is 
generally the most ineffective and useless of all. It 
is a dislocation of the Divine order. It inserts into 
the gospel a point of appeal different from that which 



SIXTH DISCOURSE. 135 

it contains. And on the side of the future it gives 
to Christianity an artificial contrivance on which to 
go, in place of the elastic and powerful limb of living 
bone and muscle given it of God.* 

When the apostles undertook to stir up the con- 
sciences and activities of men, it was not to death 
and its certainty that they referred them, but to the 
prospect of the speedy coming of the Son of man in 
the glory of the Father, clothed with the majesty of 
his j udicial power. Did they command men to repent ? 
It was '' because God hath appointed a day in the 
which he will judge the world in righteousness, by 
that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath 
given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised 
him from the dead." (Acts xvii. 30, 31.) Would 
they have us devoted in building ourselves up in 
Christian holiness and virtue ? It is '' that when he 



* **It is fresh in the memories of some of you," says Rev. 
Wm. Newton, in his "Lectures on Daniel," (p. 213,) "how, a 
short time ago, a faithful and honored minister of Christ, of large 
experience in his Master's work, declared in this pulpit that 
he was never conscious of making ' so little headway in pro- 
claiming the truth as when death, and the certainty of death, was 
his theme.' 

"Riding out to attend a funeral some time since, with a minister 
of another denomination by my side, I said to him, ' Is there any 
one theme in handling which you feel that you are making less 
impression on your hearers than with almost any other?' He 
paused a few moments, and replied, *I think there is.' 'And 
what is it ? "Why,' said he, ' it is very strange, — I don't exactly 
understand it, — but / seem never to be so unsuccessful as when I 
preach about death .'' " 



136 THE PAEABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be 
ashamed before him at his coming." (1 John ii. 18.) 
Did they wish to comfort those in persecutions and 
afflictions ? They did not point them to the grave 
for rest, but said, '' Be patient; stablish your hearts; 
for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." (James 
V. 8.) Would they incite ministers to fidelity in their 
preaching ? Their charge was made not in view of 
death, but " before Grod and the Lord Jesus Christ, 
who shall judge the quick and the dead at his ap- 
pearing and kingdom." (2 Tim. iv. 1.) And so the 
Savior himself. When he would arouse men to a 
right estimate of the miseries of exchanging the soul 
for what this world can furnish, he talks not of the 
vanity of life and the certainty of death, but refers 
them to the one great fact that "the Son of man 
shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels ; 
and then he shall reward every man according to his 
works." (Matt. xvi. 26, 27.) When he would have 
men take up testimony for him, the only motive he 
presented was, '' Whosoever shall be ashamed of me 
and of my words, of him also shall the Son of man 
be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, 
and in his Father's, and of the holy angels." (Luke 
ix. 26.) It was the same also in the preaching of 
John the Baptist, and in that of the seventy evan- 
gelists ; and it always must be so where our minis- 
terial addresses properly conform to the order and 
connections in which God has delivered his own 
truth. 

Contrary, then, to all this shifting of Christ's 



SIXTH DISCOURSE. 137 

second appearing into the background, wliilst other 
motives and anticipations, however scriptural in them- 
selves, are advanced into its room, the injunction of 
the text refers us directly to the personal advent 
of our Lord as the great object to which we are to 
direct our thoughts, and with reference to which our 
watchings are to be performed. Preparation- for that 
is preparation for every thing else ; and watching for 
that, we shall be duly alive to every other duty and 
requirement. 

Let us, then, look next at what is implied in this 
injunction to watch for the coming of the Son of 
man. 

The first particular I notice is a living faith 
that he is to come. No one can watch for an event 
which he does not believe will come to pass, or be on 
the look-out for an epiphany in which he has no con- 
fidence. Nor can we be in any way aff'ected with 
reference to the Savior's return again to the earth, 
until faith first takes up the promise and makes it a 
reality in our minds and hearts. Something more is 
required even than a mere cold speculative credence, 
which simply admits it as a fact of prophetic history, 
but which awakens no warm personal and practical 
concern. Everybody knows that mere theoretical 
faith is nothing better than practical unbelief. Unless 
the articles of our creed are made to awaken the con- 
science, touch the heart, and mould the life, they 
cannot be said to be believed in any evangelical sense 
of the word. An old author has said that "cold 
theorems and maxims, dry and jejune disputes, lean 

12* 



138 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

syllogistic reasonings, could never yet, of themselves, 
beget the least glimpses of true heavenly light, the 
least sap of saving knowledge, in any heart. . . . 
Words and syllables, which are but dead things, 
cannot possibly convey the living notions of heavenly 
truth to us. The secret mysteries of a Divine life, 
of a new nature, of Christ formed in our hearts, can- 
not be written or spoken ; language or expressions 
cannot reach them; neither can they ever be truly 
understood, except the soul itself be kindled from 
within and awakened into the life which animates 
them. A painter that would draw a rose, though he 
may flourish some likeness of it in figure and color, 
can yet never paint the scent and fragrancy ; or, if 
he would draw a flame, he cannot put a constant 
heat into his colors ; he cannot make his pencil drop 
a sound. All the skill of cunning artisans and me- 
chanics cannot put a principle of life into a statue 
of their own making. Neither are we able to enclose 
in words and letters the life, soul, and essence of any 
spiritual truths, and incorporate it in them."* 

And what is true of the articles of Christian faith 
in general, is j ust as true with reference to the article 
of the second advent in particular. It must have a 
living power in the soul, and enlist our anxious at- 
tention, and excite our practical concern, and stand 
forth in the imagination clothed in the force of literal 
reality, or we cannot be said to believe it, and can in 
no healthful degree be watching for it. 

* Ralph Cudworth's Sermon on The Knowledge of (/hrist. 



SIXTH DISCOURSE. 139 

Dr. Chalmers once wrote down in his journal this 
item of experience : — *' I have all my life viewed the 
truths of Christianity too much in the way of specu- 
lation, and as if at a distance. I have not closed 
with them; I have not laid hold of them; I have 
not apprehended them. I have been persuaded of 
the truth of the promises, but not embraced them." 
And precisely this record might modern Christendom 
justly write against itself, especially with reference 
to the doctrine of the coming again of Christ. People 
view it too much ''in the way of speculation, and as 
if at a distance." They do not " close with it." They 
do not '^ lay hold of it." They are " persuaded of the 
truth of it," but " do not embrace it." And it is just 
this which the injunction of the text strikes at as the 
first thing to be remedied, if v/e would conform to 
what the gospel requires upon the subject. We must 
accept and close in with the promise in the exercise 
of a living faith in its truth, and feel it as a fact that 
Christ is presently to appear again upon the earth. 

A second particular implied in watching for the 
coming of the Son of man, is constant expectation 
of it. We cannot be said to watch for an event to 
which we attach no idea of probable nearness, or 
which we do not anticipate for a long time to come. 
If a friend at a distance assures me that he will visit 
my house one year hence, and not before, I would 
only be playing the fool if I were to put myself in 
the attitude of watching for his arrival before that 
time. To watch, there must be doubt as to the pre- 
cise time of the appearance of that for which we 



140 THE PARABLE OP THE VIRGINS. 

watch, and a possibility of its appearance at any 
moment. When once the mind is certified that the 
subject of its anxieties is for a fixed time in the 
remote future, by the very necessities of the case it 
is completely quieted and put to rest from all appre- 
hension as respects the present. You say to your 
servant, on such a night you expect to return from 
your journey, and that you wish him to keep awake 
that night, as the hour of your arrival is uncertain. 
Of course it will be impossible for that servant, with 
such instructions, to sit up and wait for you on any 
other night. Specifying the particular night, you 
yourself exempt him from any such duty except 
for that night alone. To have him watch every 
night, you must leave him under the belief that you 
may return any night. An event, to be the subject 
of rational watchfulness, must have about it the 
attitude of impendency. It must, at least, present 
itself to the mind of the watcher as imminent, and 
as possibly very near. And so the injunction to watch 
for the coming of the Son of man, and to be upon 
the wakeful look-out for his arrival, and that injunc- 
tion directly based upon the statement that we know 
*' neither the day nor the hour," of necessity implies 
that we are to be in constant expectation of his 
coming as possibly very near at hand. 

There be those who tell us that Christ will not 
come till after the millennium, and that it will yet be 
a thousand years at least before these skies shall open 
and these eyes behold the Savior's glorious epiphany. 
But I can find no authority for thus undertaking to 



SIXTH DISCOURSE. 141 

fix " the times or tlie seasons which the Father has 
put in his own power." As I read the Scriptures, 
it contradicts some of God's plainest declarations 
and is wholly irreconcilable with the injunction before 
us. To tell a man that Christ will not come for a 
thousand years or more, and yet to require him to 
watch for that coming now, is simply to mock him, 
— at least to act toward him with great inconsistency. 
If he believes what you tell him, it is impossible for 
him to do what you require of him ; and if he com- 
plies with your requisition, he must, at least, prac- 
tically deny what you declare. For this reason alone, 
if I had no other, I would feel myself bound, in fidelity 
to the essential implications of Christ's own com- 
mands, to reject the theory which places the Savior's 
advent after the millennium. Either the time is un- 
certain, or the command to watch is applicable to 
none but those who live in that time ; which would 
again be contrary to Christ's own word. And if we 
are necessarily ignorant of the time, we dare not put 
it off even for one year, much less for a whole mil- 
lennium. As we are to watch for it now, it may occur 
now ; and the unavoidable implication is, that we 
never close our eyes for sleep sure that the next 
time we open them it will not be upon the Son of man 
coming in the clouds of heaven. 

But this watching implies more than constant 
expectation. It requires, also, efficient preparation. 
It is a condition of wakefulness, in order to be for- 
tified against surprise, guarded against danger, and 
ready to seize upon our opportunity. "We never watch 



142 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

except to be prepared for certain emergencies that 
are likely to come upon us at a time and in a way 
which we cannot exactly foresee. 

To be prepared for the coming of the Son of man, 
is to be in the condition of the five wise virgins. 
First of all, we must be virgins ; that is, chaste, and 
pure from idolatry and sin, being cleansed and sanc- 
tified by the blood of Jesus and the renewing of the 
Holy Ghost: in other words, we must be genuine 
and thorough Christians. We must also have the 
true spirit of faith and hope, which is the renuncia- 
tion of the world, and the looking forward to the 
coming of Christ and his kingdom as the great goal 
of the Christian. Furthermore, we must be joined 
with the company of those who have made this re- 
nunciation, and take up the lamp of a sincere and 
open profession of our faith and purpose, and have 
that lamp in the best possible trim for the uses for 
which it is intended, filled with the oil of the Holy 
Spirit, lit with the light of truth, and burning with 
the glory of virtue and good works. And to all this 
must be added the prudence to lay in an ample stock 
of divine unction, consecrating us unto the Lord in a 
depth and thoroughness of practical devotion beyond 
all common saintship and profession. Without this 
we hope in vain for the high honors of the kingdom 
of God. 

There be those who seem to think that nothing is 
necessary to prepare us for the coming of the Son of 
man but to believe the doctrine of his speedy coming, 
and to make ado about it. There be those, also, 



SIXTH DISCOURSE. 143 

wlio seem to believe that nothing more devolves on 
us than to refer our case to Christ, and to leave every 
thing in his hands, without any efforts or works on 
our part. But these are only Satanic opiates to 
lull the unwary heart into fatal slumbers. What is 
faith without works, but a mere empty delusion ? Of 
what use is truth, if it be not made living and prac- 
tical ? The devils believe that Christ is coming soon, 
and tremble as they look forward to it ; but they 
remain devils nevertheless. There is an obedience — a 
working life and charity — in genuine faith, in the 
absence of which all the believing and profession in 
the world are mere sounding brass and useless clatter. 
'' Not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter 
into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the 
will of my Father which is in heaven." (Matt. vii. 
21.) Good works can never save a man, nor add any 
thing to the virtue of the redemptive provisions of 
almighty grace ; but no man has ever really taken 
hold of those provisions who has not enlisted him- 
self for a practical battle with sin, in which he will 
agree to no compromises and no armistice. It lies 
in the very essence of saving faith to obey law, to 
make sacrifices, to submit to self-denial, and to work 
with the same fear and trembling and persevering 
earnestness as if it depended upon us alone to achieve 
the salvation for which we hope. Everywhere the 
Scriptures speak of service to be performed, of dili- 
gence to be exercised, and of practical righteousness 
to be exhibited, (even to the plucking out of the of- 
fending right eye, and the cutting off of the offending 



144 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

right hand, and the laying of body and soul upon the 
altar as a living sacrifice unto God, and the willing 
suffering of the loss of all things for Christ,) in con- 
nection with which alone eternal rewards are pro- 
mised. Christ must indeed work in us, but we must 
be "co-workers" with him. The "pounds" and the 
"talents" are his gifts, and our places, opportunities, 
and abilities are all conferred by him, nor will he 
reckon with us according to what we have not, but 
according to what we have ; but there is a judgment 
appointed even for Christians and servants of God, 
whose inquisition respects nothing but works, the 
awards of which are in exact commensuration with 
our deeds of good and righteousness, and in which 
no slothful servant's cause can ever be maintained. 
The very Bride of the Lamb, chosen and adorned by 
his own free grace, must yet "make herself ready," 
and only stands in her high relation to her Lord by 
reason of her untiring diligence in this particular. 

Watching is work, — work of the very hardest 
kind. Ask the sentinels and pickets in your army; 
ask the city guardians who quietly tread your pave- 
ments while you sleep ; ask the wan and weary 
attendants at the couch of affliction : and they will 
tell you. And he who counts that he is fulfilling 
the injunction of the text without laborious work, 
does but deceive himself, and is marching to a des- 
tiny of disappointment, mortification, and unavailing 
regrets. 

Nor is it difficult to ascertain what are those works 
to which we must devote ourselves with a view to be 



SIXTH DISCOURSE. 145 

ready for the Lord's coming. Having given our- 
selves unreservedly to Christ, we must try con- 
tinually to be more and more like him, mortifying 
the desires of the flesh, employing diligently the 
means of improvement in sacred wisdom and grace, 
subjecting ourselves cheerfully to the rules of hea- 
venly discipline, occupying our stations with industry, 
patience, and fidelity, endeavoring to be useful to the 
Church and to our fellow-men, and, by constant 
prayer and circumspection, seeking to abound in love, 
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
meekness, temperance, and charity, which are the 
proper fruits of a living union with the Savior. 
"When temptations arise, we must fight them, and 
resist, though it should cost us many an earthly 
loss, or even life itself. When a field of usefulness 
presents, and Providence calls us to occupy it, we 
must promptly enter it, as by God's own appoint- 
ment, never tiring, and never relinquishing, as long 
as we have strength to labor or work to do. We 
are not to forsake our places in the world and turn 
pilgrims and anchorites, nor yet to seize upon offices 
in which God has not placed us, but to be faithful in 
our appointed stations, according to the graces seve- 
rally dealt to us, — prophesying, ministering, teach- 
ing, exhorting, giving, ruling, showing mercy, and 
serving, with all godliness and honesty; abhorring 
that which is evil ; cleaving to that which is good ; 
not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; rejoicing 
in hope ; patient in tribulation ; continuing instant 
in prayer; distributing to the necessity of saints; 

13 



146 THE PAEABLE OP THE VIEGINS. 

given to hospitality ; blessing them that persecute ; 
rejoicing with them that do rejoice; weeping with 
them that weep; condescending to men of low estate; 
providing things honorable in the sight of all men, 
(Rom. xii. 6-17,) and all as under the immediate eye 
of Him to whom we shall presently have to account 
for the way in which we have fulfilled our trusts. 

This is the path to the honors of heaven. They 
can be reached by no other road. And he only who 
is found walking in this way is prepared to meet his 
Lord, or can be said to fill out the third great re- 
quirement in the command to "watch." 

There is, however, still another implication. It is 
the careful scrutiny and consideration of whatever 
signs there may be of the expected coming, and the 
anxious stirring of ourselves up to greater diligence 
as we behold those signs thickening about us. To 
watch for an event, is to be on the alert for every 
intimation of its approach, and to arouse to increased 
concern as we see the symptoms of its nearness ; and 
so, to watch for the coming of the Son of man, is to 
be awake and alive to every manifestation which 
would seem to be one of the predicted heralds of that 
great occurrence. He himself has said as much in 
plain words. He tells us that " there shall be signs 
in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars ; and 
upon earth distress of nations, with perplexity ; the 
sea and the waves roaring ; men's hearts failing them 
for fear, and for looking after those things which are 
coming on the earth. And then shall they see the 
Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great 



SIXTH DISCOURSE. 147 

glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, 
then look up, and lift up your heads." (Luke xxi. 
25-28.) As though he had said, These are the 
signals by which the dwellers on the earth shall be 
forewarned of my return: therefore look for them, 
and when you behold them, even in their beginnings, 
be assured that the day of my revelation is at hand, 
and bestir yourselves accordingly. This is watching. 
And he who refuses to look at the signs of the times, 
and cares not to see how far they fill out the predic- 
tions to which God has directed the attention of his 
people, and neglects to make the inferences from 
them which Christ has commanded us to make, must 
be put down as failing in a very important part of 
the injunction before us, and as subjecting himself to 
awful perils. For so it is written : — *' The lord of that 
servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for 
him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and 
shall cut him ofi", and appoint him his portion with 
hypocrites : there shall be weeping and gnashing of 
teeth." (Matt. xxiv. 50, 51.) 

Indulge me while I yet make a few general state- 
ments of the lessons of doctrine, reproof, correction, 
and instruction in righteousness, which we should 
learn from this parable, and I shall have done with 
these comments. 

The first is, that the doctrine of the return of 
Jesus to our world is a true doctrine, very pro- 
minent in the Savior's teachings, exceedingly im- 
portant in keeping Christians alive in faith and duty, 
and which it becomes us firmly to believe and ever 



148 THE PAKABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

to keep devoutly before us. The neglect and indif- 
ference, if not unbelief, with which it is regarded by 
the majority of modern Christians and ministers, are 
here rebuked by the Savior himself with a severity 
which should not be without powerful effect in 
awakening to a different temper and mode of dealing 
with it. The long time that he has now tarried, 
beyond all that was ever anticipated, so far from 
justifying any coldness or drowsiness with regard to 
it, should the more quicken us in our expectations, 
as the certainty of their fulfilment remains, whilst 
nearly two thousand years of the time is now past. 
If the first Christians had reason to bestir themselves 
upon this subject, much rather have we in this late 
age, which all admit to be one that is exceedingly 
mysterious and ominously critical. 

This parable also teaches us that we ought to 
endeavor to school ourselves to love the doctrine of 
Christ's return, to desire to see the promise fulfilled, 
and to pray that he might come quickly. "It be- 
hooves us," says Luther, "to be ever diligent to keep 
our hearts from hating or cursing the day of judg- 
ment; for such affections are altogether condemnable, 
and appertain to the reprobate and unsanctified." 
Many are only alarmed and troubled whenever they 
think of it, and seem to feel that they would rather 
Christ would never come. They dislike to hear of 
it, and sometimes make very impatient and unkind 
speeches about those ministers who feel it to be their 
solemn duty often to present it. It was not so with 
the early Christians. They were ever on the eager 



SIXTH DISCOURSE. 149 

watch to hail the coming of their precious Kedeemer. 
His promised return ''was the resting-place of their 
hopes, the strength of their souls, the very life of 
their joy. They allowed no object to intervene 
between them and their Lord's appearing; they 
were ever waiting and looking for it, as if all be- 
tween it and them were a dreary, rugged waste. As, 
in a night of clouds, when no small tempest lies upon 
his vessel, the seaman's eye is ever on the outlook 
for the star of morning, so were their anxious eyes, 
amid tribulation and darkness, ever watching for the 
appearing of the bright and Morning Star."* For 
this they also had every warrant in Scripture, and 
so put themselves in that attitude of constant expect- 
ancy which this parable clearly sets forth as the 
characteristic attitude of the Church wherever she is 
properly herself. 

This parable, further, teaches us the necessity of 
being continually at work to be ready, and warns us 
of the perils of being one moment off our guard, and 
most solemnly admonishes us never to be content 
short of the highest possible sanctification and Chris- 
tian attainment. Even the best will be more or less 
surprised, and put into great commotion to be ready, 
when the time comes. "And if the righteous 
scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the 
sinner appear?" (1 Pet. iv. 18.) 

Ho, then, ye foolish virgins and careless souls, be 
admonished, and provide now, while the doors of 

* Prophetic Landmarks, by H. Bonar, D.D., p. 68. 
13* 



150 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

mercy and grace are open to you ! Bestir you with 
all diligence, and be wise; lest that day come upon 
you unawares I Watch and pray ; for you know not 
how soon your Lord may come ! 

And, finally, this parable should teach us not to 
be alarmed and distressed, but to be glad and hope- 
ful, as the evidences multiply around us that the 
coming of the Lord draws near. As Christians, set 
to be and to do all we can for ourselves and that 
Kedeemer who has bought us with his blood, his 
return was never meant to be a terror to us, but a 
joy and the essence of our gladdest hope. That day 
is to be our happiest day, — the day when all present 
woes and disabilities shall cease, — the day of release 
from servitude and toil, — the day of return from 
exile and privation, — the day of triumph and ever- 
lasting jubilee, — the day when our Savior will take 
us to himself, to be with him and like him forever. 

Some of you, perhaps, have met with an account 
of a little incident* (whether true or false, it matters 
not) connected with the rescue of the English at 
Lucknow, in India, by the arrival, at the very crisis 
of their fate, of the noble Havelock, whose fall the 
whole world has mourned. The defences of the place 
were undermined, and ready to be forced by the 
infuriated natives. A remorseless enemy had gath- 
ered on every side. The exhausted garrison was 
on the point of sinking under the toils and anxieties 
of the protracted defence; and death, in its most 

* Related by Edward Everett in his Lecture on Charity. 



SIXTH DISCOUBSE. 151 

dreadful forms, was staring the inmates in the face. 
The women had borne their full part in the labors 
and dangers of resisting the fierce assault, tending 
the wounded and sick, conveying orders to the bat- 
teries, and supplying the men at the guns with the 
needed refreshments, night and day. On what was 
at the time believed to be the morning of the last 
day the enfeebled garrison could possibly hold out, 
the wife of a superior officer had gone to the lines, to 
render such aid as she could, accompanied by a young 
woman whom the excitement of the siege had thrown 
into a fever under which her mind often wandered. 
Overcome with sickness and fatigue, the young 
woman threw herself upon the ground, and fell 
asleep with her head upon the knees of her comrade, 
praying, in her delirium, to be awakened when her 
father should come home from the ploughing. It 
was not long till both were asleep, in spite of the 
roar of cannons and the noise of battle. Presently 
there was a shriek : the young woman sprang to her 
feet, — her arms raised, and her head bent forward 
in the posture of intensest listening. A look of wild 
delight broke over her countenance : she grasped the 
lady's hand, and drew her to her side, exclaiming, in 
frantic joy, '' Dinna ye hear it ? dinna ye hear it ? Tm 
na df earning. It's the slogan o' the Highlanders. We 
are saved! we are saved!" And it was even so. 
Help had come, and the sufferers were rescued. 

That beleaguered city is a type of the Church of 
God. For eighteen dreary centuries has she been 



152 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

weighed down with the sore anxieties, labors, priva- 
tions, watchings, and perils of battle with error, 
with sin, with hoary and savage superstition, with 
the relentless powers of unbelief, depraved passion, 
and fierce persecution. In every age has the blood 
of her champions been made to flow, and the lives 
of thousands of her children been sacrificed, in de- 
fence of her towers, her bulwarks, and her palaces. 
Never a victory was gained, but the warfare was 
renewed in other forms, the struggle made more 
desperate, and the foe more subtle and more fierce. 
Day after day for all the period of her history have 
her fears and perils and privations increased, and 
the enemy drawn closer and closer upon her in- 
trenchments, whilst her children grew faint and 
fevered and delirious, and leaned upon each other 
in their helplessness, dreary, exhausted, and ready 
to die. From the crucifixion of her Lord till now, 
has she been drinking of the bitter waters of afflic- 
tion, sharing with him the woes of the cross, and 
crying without intermission under the weight of op- 
pressions and sufferings from which none within her 
lines could deliver her. To this moment we hear 
the shoutings of her enemies that her batteries are 
growing feeble, that her strength is rapidly failing, 
that her foundations are being undermined, and that 
soon she will be at the mercy of her foes. Even 
some who once stood up bravely for her have thrown 
down their arms and given up their exertions, be- 
lieving that further attempts are but useless. Sick 



SIXTH DISCOURSE. 153 

and distracted, some of the most loving and untiring 
have prostrated themselves upon the earth, and fallen 
asleep in their faintness and delirium caused by the 
perilous strife. And darker and darker shall grow 
the prospect, and still sterner and sterner the con- 
flict, until the last hope is ready to be crushed out 
before the gigantic strength of the last earthly em- 
bodiment of hell and death. But just when the ex- 
tremity is greatest and stout hearts are ready to 
give up for lost, there shall be a shriek, and, with 
it, a starting up of the faint ones from their long 
prostration, and a mysterious bending forward, and 
listening, and straining of ears, to sounds which not 
every one can hear, and strange, wild, but joyous 
transformations of the anxious listeners, and a thrill- 
ing grasping of hands, and shouting of one to 
another, ''Do you not hear it? — Do you not hear 
it? — It's no dream. — It's the tramp of new armies 
from the highlands of home. — It's the palm-bearing 
Hero, with his invincible hosts. — It's the Captain of 
salvation, approaching for the rescue. — It's the 
Samson of deliverance, hewing down our foes. — It's 
the Lord in his power, come at last as he promised. 
— ^We are saved ! We are saved ! We are 

SAYED !" 

And, in hope of participation in the joyous redemp- 
tion of that blest day, I here close these comments 
upon the parable of the ten virgins, commending 
you who have listened to them, to God and to the 
power of his grace, praying that what I have said 



154 THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. 

to you in weakness may not be without its good 
fruits in the coming harvest of eternity. 

''Now unto Him that is able to keep you from 
falling, and to present you faultless before the pre- 
sence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only 
wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion 
and power, now and ever. Amen." 



THE 



|tt40^sW|r of iU ^mi^. 



A SERMON. 



«* Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who 
both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and -will 
make manifest the counsels of the hearts." — 1 Cob. iv. 6. 

I. The first point in these words, to which I invite 
attention, is the implied truth, that the dignities and 
prerogatives of judgeship do appertain to the saints. 
It is true that the text is a command against judg- 
ing. The word is, ''judge nothing." But there is a 
limit to the prohibition. There is a time specified, 
for which the interdiction does not apply. It is only 
"before the time" that we are not to judge, — imply- 
ing that, when the time comes, we are to judge, and to 
exercise all the high functions denoted by that word. 

And what is here implied is elsewhere plainly ex- 
pressed. As to the twelve apostles, Jesus said, " I 
appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath ap- 
pointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my 
table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging 
the twelve tribes of Israel." (Luke xxii. 29, 30.) 
But honors of this kind are not to be confined to the 
twelve, — though theirs is to be a position of peculiar 

155 



156 THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 

eminence. Paul, in a subsequent chapter of this same 
epistle, refers to it as a well-understood item of the 
Christian faith, and as a matter of common expecta- 
tion, that '^ the saints shall judge the woidd.'' ''Do 
ye not know," says he, " that the saints shall judge 
the world?" — that "the world shall be judged by 
you?" Nay, more: "Know ye not that we shall 
judge angels ?" (1 Cor. vi. 2, 3.) Of old had the Psalm- 
ist sung, that "the upright shall have dominion," (Ps. 
xlix. 14,) and that the "Great King" "shall subdue 
the people under us, and the nations under our feet." 
(Ps. xlvii. 3.) Daniel had also prophesied, "I beheld, 
until the An cient of days came, aifd judgment was given 
to the saints of the Most High ; and the time came 
that the saints possessed the kingdom." (Dan. vii. 21, 
22.) Even the apocryphal book of Wisdom (iii. 7) 
had said of the righteous, " They shall judge the 
nations, and have dominioij over the people." Christ 
himself, in sundry promises and parables, had pointed 
forward to judicatorial powers to be possessed by his 
faithful followers, and afterward dictated to be writ- 
ten to the Church at Thyatira, " He that overcometh, 
and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I 
give power over the nations, and he shall rule them." 
(Rev. iii. 26, 27.) And, as was promised, John, in 
vision, " saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and 
judgment was given unto them; . . . and they lived 
and reigned with Christ." (Rev. xx. 4.)* 

* See also Ex. xix. 6 ; Ps. cxlix. 5-9 ; Isa. xxxii. 1 ; Matt. xix. 
28; Luke xix. 17, 19; 1 Cor. ix. 25; 2 Tim. iv. 8; 1 Pet. v. 4; 
Rev. i. 6, ii. 10, iii. 21, v. 10, xxi. 7. 



THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 157 

There can therefore be no mistake in receiving it as 
a scriptural truth, and as a subject of well-founded 
Christian hope, that the faithful servants of the Lord 
are to be judges, and to exercise all the high offices 
going along with such dignities. 

II. Nor can it be other than a matter of great in- 
terest for us to inquire, in the next place, into the 
nature of that judgeship. This is a point not so clear, 
at least to the great mass of hearers. And some in- 
terpreters have shown great wavering and hesitation 
in accepting the statements of the Bible respecting it. 
Some find this judging of the world by the saints in 
the testimony which they bear by their lives and death 
against the ungodliness, blindness, infatuation, and in- 
gratitude of the world. Others find it in the power 
of the keys, with which the Church is invested, — 
the binding and loosing power, by which, in the pur- 
suit of her legitimate mission, w^hat she does on earth 
is ratified in heaven. Others find it in the authority 
of the sacred writings which have been committed 
to the Church, and their enthronement in the coun- 
cil-halls of Christendom to rule the consciences and 
lives of all men. Others find it in a certain unde- 
fined assessorship of the saints with Christ in a grand 
assize, which they suppose is to take place at the 
conclusion of all earthly things. Whilst still others 
find it in these several particulars combined. 

That there is truth in these representations, is not 
to be disputed. The saints, by their righteousness, 
do condemn the rest of the world for its sins. The 

14 



158 THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 

Church, within certain limitations, does bind and 
loose in a way which must needs hold good forever. 
The holy books of Revelation certainly are the pro- 
perly-constituted authorities by which all faith and 
practice is to be regulated. And there is a sense in 
which the saints will approve, endorse, and ratify all 
the final decisions of the day of reckoning. But in 
neither nor in all of these do I find any thing toward 
a realization of those high judicatorial prerogatives 
with which we have now to do. 

As to the first, it has been the same in all ages, 
and wherever there have been saints ; whereas, the 
judgeship of which we are inquiring is everywhere 
spoken of as a subject of promise and a matter for 
futurity. The apostle does not say that saints do 
now judge the world and judge angels, but that they 
" shall judge' them. So far from its being a thing 
of this present life, our text declaims against any 
attempt toward its exercise now, as a usurpation, 
and as sinfully and disastrously premature. 

The same objection lies equally and unsurmount- 
ably against the second. The exercise of the power 
of the keys, as possessed by the Church, is a thing 
already in hand, and not a matter of promise to be 
fulfilled at a fixed time in the future. 

As to the third, it is not a reign of the saints at 
all, but of Grod and his own proper word. The books 
of Scripture are not people; and no rhetoric or 
logic can make the authority of God's word take 
the place of personal rulership promised to men. 
Besides, the world, above all, is just that which the 



THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 159 

Scriptures do not rule, however much they may con- 
deran it. 

And as to the fourth, it is ridiculous to think that 
Christ would labor and suffer so much to establish 
great thrones for his people merely to have them en- 
dorse his final adjudications. Neither is such an ac- 
quiescence in the justice of his awards at all peculiar 
to the saints. The devils themselves will have to do 
as much; and the worst of the condemned will be 
obliged to acknowledge the righteousness of their 
sentence with as much depth of conviction as the 
highest among the redeemed. It seems to me, there- 
fore, like trifling with the word and promises of God 
to locate this sublime judgeship of the saints in any 
of these things, or in all of them together. 

There is another view, adopted by some who en- 
tirely reject the explanations to which I have re- 
ferred. These hold the substance of the promise 
to have been that, in the course of time, Chris- 
tians were to be elected to office and invested 
with magistracy, and that, by means of rulers of 
the Christian persuasion, the saints have long since 
become the judges of the world. But to take such 
a fiction as the fulfilment of the sublime hope of 
which prophets sung, and with which the Son of 
God comforted his followers under their hardships 
and sacrifices for him, is a draw upon the imagina- 
tion for which I am not prepared in such solemn 
things. There is, however, this good feature about 
this view, which recommends it beyond the others I 
have named : that is, that it takes the words of the 



160 THE JUDGESHIP 'OF THE SAINTS. 

promise in their literal and proper sense. It con- 
nects this judgeship of the saints with magistracy and 
rulership, and with the exercise of the proper func- 
tions of a judge in the scriptural acceptation. The 
Judges of Israel were those who governed Israel, — 
who had in their control the administration of Is- 
rael's affairs as a nation, as well as between man and 
man. They were the executors of right, who de- 
cided cases of dispute, punished offenders, and, under 
God their King, exercised all the attributes of sove- 
reignty. When Saul was called to the throne, his 
royal leadership and administrations were also de- 
nominated judging. And so generally, in Scripture 
diction, ruling, reigning, administering to the public 
good, and judging, involve essentially one and the 
same idea.* So far, then, as this promised judgeship 
of the saints is interpreted of literal rulership and 
magistracy, it is to be accepted as scriptural and cor- 

■* " In Hebrew the book of Judges is a history of Jewish 
rulers; and nothing is more frequent than such a use of the 
words to judge and a judge, as designates the duty and office of 
superior or supreme ruler. Exactly in point seems to be Matt, 
xix. 28, where the Savior tells the apostles that they shall sit on 
twelve dpovovg, Kpivovrec the twelve tribes of Israel; i.e. they 
shall be entitled to superiority over all their brethren of the He- 
brew nation. And so in 1 Cor. vi. 3 Kpivovfitv is employed. The 
word Kpi^a in the clause Rev. xx. 4, which in the New Testament 
is often equivalent to the Hebrew meshepath, does not with cer- 
tainty designate the appropriate office of judging, as we employ 
this word, but may be interpreted as applying to the supervision 
or making of statutes, ordinances, arrangements, S^c, by those who are 
in a superior station." — M. Stuart on the Apocalypse, ii. 357. See 
also Bush's Notes on Judges, pp. 3, 4. 



THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 161 

rect. But to find it all fulfilled and realized in the 
mingled and sorry administrations of the few Chris- 
tians who have here and there filled places of power 
in this world, is to permit this great and animating 
hope of the saints to explode and evaporate in the 
attempt to explain it. 

Perhaps the best way to obtain just ideas of this 
judgeship of the saints will be to bring clearly before 
us the nature of the judgeship of Christ; for the two 
are so closely identified that the one must necessarily 
partake of the nature of the other. As he and the 
Father are one, so he and his true people are one, — 
not in mere concurrence of will and aff'ection, but in 
communion of nature, — so closely one as to render it 
proper for the apostle to apply to them collectively 
the name of '' Christ," and to designate them as 
''members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones," 
and so really one as to involve participation with 
him in all that appertains to him, whether in per- 
sonal excellency or official prerogatives. The saints 
are not to ''judge the world" and "judge angels" 
without Christ, or apart from him, but with him, as 
they are ^^ glorified together,'' ''sit with'' him on his 
throne, and "reign with" him.* Their judgeship is 
simply a participation in his judgeship, — which is, in 
some degree, to be distributed from the head to all 
the members, as one with him in all things. "We 
need, therefore, only have clear ideas of his judge- 



* See John x. 30, xvii. 11, 21, 22; Kom. viii. 17, 29, 30 ; 1 Cor. 
iil. 21-23, xii. 12 ; Eph. v. 30 ; Rev. iii. 21, xx. 4. 
14* 



162 THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 

ship to understand what that of the saints is ; for ono 
is a part of the other. 

What, then, is the judgeship of Christ? Not 
simply that of hearing and determining each one's 
individual cause at some grand assize in which all 
men shall simultaneously appear before him to re- 
ceive their dooms. This is a meagre and most in- 
adequate view of the matter. I have said that the 
scriptural idea of a judge is one who exercises sove- 
reign rule, administers the laws, governs the people, 
avenges them of their enemies and oppressors, guides 
them in peace and safety, and eliforces justice and 
righteousness. And so the judgeship of Christ is 
not to be separated from the reign of Christ, or his 
sovereign ministrations as " King of kings and Lord 
of lords." '' The day of judgment" is not a literal 
day of twenty-four hours, but a period, running per- 
haps through a thousand years or more. The truth is, 
that the day of judgment, in some sense, is always. 
The j udgment itself is ordered after the manner of a 
climax. It has its degrees and stages, some of which 
are already present; and from these it is to advance 
to others, until it eventuates in a grand ultimate 
coming forth of the sublime Judge in an adminis- 
tration which is to rid the world of all sin and 
usurpation, but which is to be made up of a series 
of events which will run through at least a thou- 
sand years and then establish itself in eternal per- 
petuity. Grod is ever and anon dealing out retribu- 
tions and deliverances of a direct judicatorial cha- 
racter. Jesus says, " He that believe th on the Son 



THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 163 

is not condemned,'' — that is, is adjudged at this 
present to be innocent; " but he that believeth not 
is condemned already," — literally, is judged already, 
— " because he hath not believed in the name of the 
only-begotten Son of God." (John iii. 18.) We 
know that believers are justified as soon as they be- 
lieve; but justification is altogether a judicial trans- 
action, a judgment of acquittal. When the Savior 
was yet on earth, he said, "Wow is the judgment of 
this world," (John xii. 31 ;) " the prince of this world 
is judged.'' (John xvi. 11.) That is, there was then 
going on a process of judicial administration by 
which the wicked world and its wicked prince were 
being bereft of some of their former powers and 
liberties. So when God went through Egypt and 
smote the first-born of man and beast, it is said that 
he executed judgment upon that nation. So also in 
the case of the revelation of his avenging arm against 
proud Babylon, and the deliverance of Israel from its 
power. And so in that of every interposition of God 
to enforce the awards of justice, either by way of 
punishing his enemies or delivering his people. They 
are all judgments, — the first stages, preludes, and 
earnests of the more complete, extensive, and effect- 
ive adjudications yet to come. Thus, also, the im- 
mediate consequences of death are called " the judg- 
ment," (Heb. ix. 27,) as there is then a broader and 
an unalterable distinction drawn between the good 
and the wicked, and God's government goes into 
more ample effect. But beyond all these there is 
still a greater judgment, — called by eminence " the 



164 THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 

judgment," — made up of a series of wonderful ad- 
ministrations with reference to saints and sinners, 
living and dead, men and angels, which are to begin 
in connection with the Savior's return, and to be com- 
pleted under that renovating order of things which he 
is then to set up, and by which the world is to become 
rid of all ailments and defilements, the saints instated 
in their rewards, and the eternal dominion of right- 
eousness made to take possession of the earth. 

The Judgeship of Christ, therefore, connects with, 
and has its highest perfection in, his royal adminis- 
trations "upon the throne of his father David, to 
order it, and to establish it, with judgment and with 
justice forever," when ''he shall judge among many 
people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they 
shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their 
spears into pruning-hooks." (Isa. ii. 4.) 

The first thing which Christ will do, when he 
comes, will be to gather to himself all his true people 
who shall be found ready, by raising those of them 
that be dead, and translating those of them who shall 
be found still living upon earth. These are called his 
Brethren or his Bride, selected for a position of spe- 
cial nearness to himself, and to be ever with him in a 
heavenly, angelic form of life. They constitute "the 
Church of the first-born," with all the royal, priestly, 
and other prerogatives of the first-born. They are 
all to be " caught up in the clouds," (1 Thess. iv. 17;) 
and their life thenceforward is to be like that of 
their Lord subsequent to his resurrection, — for the 
most part invisible to those in the flesh, yet corpo- 



THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 165 

real, and powerful in wisdom and strength beyond all 
that we can now understand. These are pre-emi- 
nently "the saints," who are to be judges and kings, 
and to whom Christ will at once assign places, offices, 
and dignities according to their faithfulness, labors, 
and sacrifices for him in this life. 

All this accomplished, the next thing to be done is 
the deliverance of nominal Christendom from all such 
as are ungodly, impious, and positively wicked, by 
great and terrible judgments; that is, by sore and 
sudden destructions which shall befall nation after 
nation until all the enemies of God " shall be con- 
sumed as the fat of lambs." (Ps. ii. 9, xxxvii. 20.) 
In these administrations of vengeance Christ will not 
operate alone. Almost every passage on the subject 
refers to certain co-operators, messengers, '' angels," 
who are to take part in them; as where we read 
that " the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven 
with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking ven- 
geance on them that know not God, and that obey 
not the gospel." (2 Thess. i. 7, 8.) And again, "The 
armies in heaven followed him upon white horses, 
clothed in fine linen, clean and white." (Eev. xix. 
14.) That these co-operators in these judgments are 
the saints, is to be inferred from their being called 
peculiarly Christ's angels, and from the fine, clean, 
white linen in which they are clad, which is spe- 
cifically noted as " the righteousness of the saints.'' 
(Rev. xix. 8; see also Dan. vii. 26, Rev. ii. 26, 27, 
and Ps. cxlix. 5-9.) 

Here, then, is part of the judgeship of the saints. 



166 THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 

They are to participate with Christ in inflicting 
those great judgments which are to overthrow "the 
kings of the earth and their armies," and to cast the 
"beast" and "the false prophet" into the lake of 
fire. It was in this way that angels were employed 
in inflicting God's judgments under former dispensa- 
tions; and Christ says that "the children of the 
resurrection shall be equal unto the angels." (Matt, 
xxii. 30; Mark xii. 25; Luke xx. 35, 36.) "For 
unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the 
world to come whereof we speak." (Heb. ii. 5.) 

But, succeeding to these judgments upon wicked 
men and devils, there is to be set up a new order of 
empire in the world, a heavenly Christocracy, which 
had its type under the old theocratic system of the 
Hebrews, in which God himself, in visible and 
audible manifestation, was King, and Samson and 
Gideon and Jephtha and Eli and Samuel, and their 
like, were the judges, to mediate between him and the 
people, to lead, guide, govern, and protect them ac- 
cording to the word and law which God himself gave. 
In the setting up of this kingdom, the glorified saints 
are also, perhaps, to take part, as Moses and Aaron 
and Joshua took part in the setting up of the an- 
cient Theocracy; which would furnish still another 
and sublime department of the judicatorial minis- 
trations of the saints. 

But, the kingdom being established, they shall cer- 
tainly take part in its administrations, and be in- 
vested with permanent ojQ&ces of authority, leader- 
ship, and dominion in it, typified by those of the 



THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 167 

judges of ancient Israel, in which each one is to be 
exalted in exact proportion to his works on earth: 
he that wrought so as to gain ten pounds, to ''have 
authority over ten cities," and he that gained five 
pounds, to "be over five cities;" the twelve apostles 
to sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes 
of Israel, and every one that hath forsaken houses, 
or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, 
or children, or lands, for the sake of Christ, to re- 
ceive an hundredfold. (Matt. xix. 27-29.) 

Thus, then, shall they have power over the na- 
tions, and shall rule them, and reign with Christ, and, 
in connection with him, have subject to them the 
whole world to come whereof we speak, being kings 
and priests unto God for ever and ever. Hence sung 
the Psalmist of old, ''Let the saints be joyful in 
glory: let them sing aloud upon their places of rest: 
let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and 
a two-edged sword in their hand; to execute ven- 
geance upon the nations, and punishments upon the 
people; to bind their kings with chains, and their 
nobles with fetters of iron ; to execute upon them the 
judgment written. This honor have all his saints." 
(Ps. cxlix. 5-9 ; see also Dan. vii. 27.) 

III. A third particular claiming attention in this 
text, is the comrriand not to undertake to exercise 
these judieatorial powers until the Lord come. This 
evinces a very wise precaution, — a complete under- 
standing of the perverse and grasping propensities 
of the human heart. With all the plain declarations 



168 THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 

of Scripture showing these powers to be in reserve 
for the world to come, and forbidding the assumption 
of any of them until regularly invested with them 
by the Savior at his return, people have ever evinced 
great impatience to assume them prematurely, and 
to undertake to be judges before the time. But 
God is a God of order, not of confusion; and these 
great honors are his own gifts, to be imparted ac- 
cording to our dutifulness and fidelity in his pre- 
sent service, as he himself shall adjudge us worthy, 
and not as we, in our weakness and vain-glory, may 
dream. Therefore he saith, "Judge nothing before 
the time, until the Lord come." 

There are three departments in which this injunc- 
tion may be violated, and in which many professing 
Christians have shown themselves prone to trans- 
gress. 

The one is the theatre of private life ; as when one 
undertakes to sit in judgment upon another, and to 
pronounce upon him without reason, without grounds, 
without evidence, or perhaps against it; — when 
people judge their brethren rashly, unadvisedly, 
partially, unjustly, uncharitably, contemptuously, 
censoriously ; — when they pass their judgments and 
censures in the dark, and shoot out their arrows at 
random, and run into all sorts of invectives and con- 
demnations, not according to the merits of the case, 
but according to humor, fancy, prejudice, or pas- 
sion; — when they charge others with faults which 
they never committed, or magnify their deficiencies 
to bring them into disrepute; — when they under- 



THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 169 

take to pull motes out of the eyes of their brethren, 
put the worst construction upon all dubious cases, 
pretend to judge of men's secret thoughts, designs, 
purposes, and affections, and set up harsh rules to 
which to hold them accountable, claiming dominion 
over their consciences. Now, all such judging, and 
especially all personal revenge, is here and every- 
where in the Scriptures most severely reprobated as 
the usurpation of offices which do not belong to us in 
the present constitution of things, and by indulging 
in which we invade Grod's jurisdiction and incur his 
displeasure. It is a premature grasping of the reins 
of dominion, to which depraved nature has made us 
all prone, but which God will judge with great 
severity. *' Vengeance is mine ; I will repay, saith 
•the Lord." (Rom. xii. 19.) We must, therefore, 
beware how we venture to take the law into our own 
hands, whether by word or deed. 

Another department in which people have shown 
themselves prone to violate this prohibition is, in 
church-discipline; as when one set of professing 
Christians set themselves up as the only Church, 
condemning, anathematizing, and excommunicating 
all who do not hold with them ; — when people under- 
take to have a church which shall neither admit nor 
retain any who are not certainly converted and 
sanctified, pretending to divide the sheep from the 
goats, the wheat from the tares, the good fish from 
the bad, in anticipation of that discrimination which 
only Christ himself, as the Great Judge, is to make at 
the great day. The Church is, indeed, charged not 

15 



170 THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 

to cast its pearls before swine, nor to give that whicli 
is holy unto the dogs. Care and discretion must be 
exercised to keep out the unbelieving and the vicious, 
and to separate from us the unclean and the dis- 
orderly; but we must remember that "God hath 
committed all judgment unto the Son;" and when 
any one comes with any thing like a credible pro- 
fession of faith in Christ, or shows a willingness to 
be identified with Christ's people, we have no alterna- 
tive left us but to receive him, and to deal with him 
as a brother in Christ, leaving it to the Great Judge 
himself to discriminate as to the genuineness of his 
right to a place among the saints. Any thing dif- 
ferent from this is a judging before the time, and a 
usurpation which must needs work disastrously in 
the end. (See Eom. xiv. 1-10.) 

But a still more disorderly and reprehensible 
violation of the command of the text, is that of 
attempting to clothe the Church with magisterial 
jurisdiction over all earthly government, and to 
establish by force of arms the sovereignty of what 
pretends to be the spiritual over the secular power. 
Of this character were the proceedings of the Ana- 
baptists in Luther's time, who greatly disgraced 
some precious truths by their wicked fanaticism and 
seditious behavior. Under the cry that the saints 
are appointed to be judges and kings and to possess 
the kingdom and dominion and greatness of the 
kingdom under the whole heaven, they arrogated to 
themselves the authority and appointment to found 
the new kingdom of God, and at once proceeded to 



THE JUDGESHIP OP THE SAINTS. 171 

organize a separate republic, renounced their lawful 
rulers, seized upon the government of the cities in 
which they lived, began to cast out, disinherit, and 
punish all who did not submit to their new and 
licentious rule, and would not have stopped until 
they had totally uprooted all the stabilities and 
foundations of society, had not the bayonets of the 
Empire quenched their fanatic furor in their blood.* 

Of this same character were those desperate en- 
thusiasts of England, known as the Fifth-monarchy 
men of Cromwell's time, who held that King Jesus 
was the only proper authority on earth; that the 
saints, whom they professed to be, were to take the 
kingdom, and reign with him; and who, accordingly, 
armed and sallied forth to subvert the government, 
that they might hold it for Christ or die in the at- 
tempt; but whose heads were finally posted upon 
London Bridge as a just warning to all passers-by 
against the repetition of such base attempts to judge 
before the time. It is, indeed, the purpose of God 
that the saints shall possess the kingdom and reign 
with Christ; but far, very far, from being saints, are 
such usurpers as these. 

Nor is this the way in which we are to come to the 
kingdom and to the thrones that the people of God 
are to possess. They can only be given us by Christ, 
and are meanwhile reserved like an estate which we 
are not of sufficient age to inherit. And when they 



* It is this people and their mischievous opinions that the 
Augsburg Confession, in the 17th Article, condemns. 



172 THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 

are given, it will be on a principle whicli gives the 
preference to meekness, and bestows the highest of 
them upon the humblest and the most childlike, not 
to the grasping and rapacious. 

Whilst this present world lasts, the Church shall 
never be other than under the cross, depressed, 
feeble, and afflicted, — a counterpart to the Savior's 
own experience, who entered not upon his glory until 
he entered upon another life by his resurrection from 
the dead. And it is according to our patience, long- 
suffering, and steadfast fidelity under these trials 
that we are to rise in dominion hereafter, and receive 
our crowns in the world to come. To undertake, 
therefore, to exercise the powers of judging in any 
of the ways to which I have alluded, will be to mar 
our prospects of reaching them, — at least, greatly to 
limit and diminish them when they come. 

Besides, why should we wish to exercise such high 
functions now, amid the ignorance and incompetency 
which cleave to us in this life? No one yet is able 
to judge even himself, to analyze his own character, 
to know his own heart, or to arbitrate justly in his 
own case. How then shall we presume to judge 
others, of whom we know so much less? No one 
yet is able rightly to rule and govern himself. Why, 
then, should we be thus aspiring to dominion over 
others? How limited is our knowledge even of the 
lives of our most intimate friends, and how still more 
limited our capacity to understand the feelings and 
motives by which they are moved and governed, and 
to comprehend the aims and desires they cherish in 



THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 173 

tbeir secret souls ! A wretched world would " the 
world to come" be, — no better than this in which we 
now live, — if no greater capacities can be brought 
into its administrations than those which we in this 
world possess. Why, then, should we ever think 
while here of assuming authority in a domain so 
spiritual and unknown, by undertaking to judge 
each other or to judge the world before the time? 
Should we not rather lay our hands upon our lips, 
and be still and know that Christ is Lord, waiting 
till he shall come, and bring to light the hidden 
things and make manifest the counsels of the hearts ? 

The subject before us, therefore, is one of a highly 
practical character. It has in it much of reproof, 
correction, and instruction, — much to make us rejoice, 
and much to make us humble. 

It is a sublime and dizzy height to which we are 
exalted by the thought that we are to judge angels 
and judge the world. It places us, in prospect, among 
the principalities and princedoms of eternity. We 
are almost overwhelmed at the mere contemplation 
of that majesty to which we are called, anointed, 
and predestined in Christ Jesus. It would seem as 
if heaven had no gifts of honor and glory higher 
than those which are to be distributed among the 
saints and made the everlasting possession of the 
faithful followers of the Lamb of Grod. I am amazed 
and confounded when I attempt to survey the tran- 
scendent altitudes of exaltation and power to which 
the poor sinful children of men are to be advanced 

15* 



174 THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 

by redeeming grace. We sometimes say to ourselves 
amid our many and daily provocations, and trials, 
and temptations, and failures, and discouragements, 
Ahf it is a hard thing to he a Christian ! And it is 
even so. The evil with which we have to contend is 
so powerful, our own strength is so feeble, the oppor- 
tunities, inducements, and incentives to wrong are so 
many, the burden of a devoted life is so heavy to our 
poor depraved nature, that it is a hard thing to be a 
Christian. It requires incessant toil, and self-denial, 
and watchfulness, and prayer; and even then we 
seem to retrograde rather than progress. But when 
we consider what the Savior has done for us, and 
think how that for these crosses come crowns, for 
these sufferings, thrones, for these toils, kingdoms, 
for these struggles, judgeships and princedoms in 
the high Empire of God, we have abundant reason 
to rejoice and give thanks in the midst of all the 
hardship, that we have been called on any conditions 
to enter upon the campaign for such transcendent 
honors. I bless God, through Jesus Christ my Lord, 
that he has made it my privilege to suffer, toil, and 
wrestle, though it should be through tears and blood, 
for the glories of empire which are held out to me 
in his gospel. 

But there is quite as much in this to humble us as 
to exalt and rejoice. What a thing of weakness and 
infirmity is man ! — born almost as helpless as an in- 
animate clod ; for years a fretful babe, scarcely know- 
ing that he has an existence at all; for one-fourth of 
his lifetime unable to procure the food he consumes, 



THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS, 175 

or to keep himself without governors and guardians ; 
and, followed up even to the robustness of manhood, 
still frail, dependent, just able while in health to sup- 
ply his ordinary wants, and often not that ; until pre- 
sently imprudence or ignorance brings sickness upon 
him, and he is down again in the helplessness in 
which he was born, — the brawny arm hanging power- 
less by his side, too weak and tremulous to conduct a 
cup of water in safety to his lips, his manly frame 
worn to a skeleton, his boasted intellect unable to 
command two consecutive thoughts, his eyes sight- 
less, his ears dull, his blood stagnant in its chan- 
nels, and he gasping for a little breath to live an- 
other hour, and with all guilty and bronzed with 
crime, making the very beams in his chamber cry 
out with accusations! Look at him; survey his case; 
realize the utter vanity and wretchedness which ap- 
pertain to such a being; consider that it is the pic- 
ture of yourself, and of me, and of all men ; and then 
bring forward the fact, that of such as these God has 
chosen the people who are to judge the world, and 
to judge angels, — to share in the grand administra- 
tions of the glorious Christ in renewing the world, — 
to sit with the only-begotten Son of God in the ex- 
ercise of dominion to which angels shall be in sub- 
jection, — and to reign in immortal regency in the 
high princedoms to which the ransomed myriads of 
the new world's exalted population shall bow in 
cheerful and happy obedience, — and see whether 
there be not reason for us to blush and hide our 
faces, and to humble ourselves in the very dust, 



176 THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 

at the mere thought of being promoted to such 
astounding dignities ! my God, what is man, that 
thou art thus mindful of him? or the son of man, 
that thou dost so exalt him? 

And hence there is also much in this subject to 
enhance our appreciation of the dignity and value of 
a Christian life. It connects empire with our lowly 
discipleship, and sublime royalty with our penitence 
and prayers. Piety may subject us for a little while 
to the scorn and sneers of men, but it will presently 
introduce us into the fraternal esteem of angels and 
secure for us recognition among eternal principali- 
ties. Even for the life which now is, it has its 
profit over all losses. And should we have to give 
up every thing which this world values, in Christ 
there still is ample compensation. The first dis- 
ciples forsook all, and from fishermen and tax- 
gatherers they became patriarchs of the New Dis- 
pensation, — pastors, and prophets, and princes upon 
apostolic thrones, and leaders of a vaster and sub- 
limer host than monarch ever marshalled. In place 
of the friends and homes they left, they were made 
the beloved centres of another household, which 
gave them sons and daughters, brethren and sisters, 
in all lands, full of loving sympathy and undying 
affection. For the little estates which they relin- 
quished, all things became theirs, and rich men laid 
their money at their feet, and streams of generous 
liberality broke into life whithersoever they went, 
furnishing them abundance for all their wants. And, 
with all the wrongs and persecutions to which their 



THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 177 

new profession subjected them, there was an ac- 
companying reward, rich and glorious, in the 
teachings and experiences of the gospel which it 
gave them. Even when the powers of evil pressed 
heaviest upon them, their souls still fed on hidden 
joys and thrilled with liberty and peace of which 
no adversity could deprive them. And never, unto 
this day, has any one forsaken aught at the call of 
Jesus, but he has found a recompense even in this life. 
Moses relinquishes the court and riches and domi- 
nion of Egypt for the promises of God; and from 
Jethro's sheepfold he rises to be the humiliator of 
Pharaoh, the liberator of enslaved Israel, and the 
prince of prophets, legislators, and historians. Daniel 
deliberately forfeits his life for the sake of com- 
munion with his Maker; and the hand of miracle in- 
terposes for his safety, and lifts him to the highest 
honor and authority in the gift of great Babylon's 
lofty king. Rosa Madiai persists in the devout read- 
ing of her Bible, in the face of imprisonment and 
chains; and instantly her humble name is heralded 
over the earth, and millions of hearts are touched, 
and flow with tenderest sympathy to cheer her in 
her dungeon and to enroll her among the modest 
heroines of the faith. The recompense may not 
always come in a form so marked or in a degree so 
ample; but it will come, for it is the pledge of mani- 
fold Wisdom and almighty Love to attemper to each 
obedient child a reward and consolation even now 
for all the sacrifices exacted. But high over all such 
gains as these are honors to which all our attain- 



178 THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 

ments here are but the feeble indexes. To these are 
to be added thrones and dominions in eternal glory. 
Every thorough Christian is not only a child of 
God and linked to him in indestructible communion 
and peace, but a rightful heir to enduring kingship. 
His very Christianity transmutes him into a being 
of wondrous dignity. "When we look upon him, 
we behold a royal personage, — a being anointed of 
God to wield the sceptre of immortal empire, — a 
man who is presently to be invested with potencies to 
which even angels shall bow, — a future dispenser of 
administrations from which the great and holy in- 
terests of 'Hhe world to come" are to take com- 
plexion, and the eternal ages to be shaped and 
conditioned. As yet, he dwells in flesh, amid weak- 
nesses, necessities, and straits; but his name is in 
the books of heaven, and God hath decreed con- 
cerning him that he shall receive power and riches 
and glorious rulership, and reign for ever and ever. 
Great, wonderful man ! beside whom the great ones 
of earth, at whose names the nations tremble, are 
but ciphers and mimic men! The very earth be- 
neath his steps is being consecrated by reason of 
the exaltations to which he is called and pre- 
destined ! 

From this subject may we, then, also learn to prize 
the preciousness of our Bedeemer's cross. By that 
bloody instrument of eternal compassion it is that 
these dignities are put within our reach. Without 
that, instead of rising to take rank among the 



THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 179 

eternal principalities, we should all have been de- 
graded and ever-sinking vassals, — the thralls of 
sin and hell's disgusting tyranny, the doomed 
and helpless victims of unholy domination. Had 
there been no Jesus to die for us on Calvary, there 
had been no world of peace and glory for man, no 
thrones there to be occupied. It is by his cross and 
passion that all these honors come. It is by his 
mysterious encounter with death and hell in their 
own dark domain that these princedoms have been 
won and rendered attainable to sinful men. And 
it is only through the victory which he com- 
pleted by his resurrection from the tomb, that such 
kings shall reign and such princes decree justice. 
For many reasons, the cross is a precious token. It 
is the everlasting monument to the perfections and 
glory of God. It tells of his eternal power and 
Godhead equally with the mighty products of his 
creating hand. It bespeaks a power of a higher 
sort than that which called the worlds into being. It 
preaches of an unswerving justice in a language 
more awful than the thunders that roll and bellow 
in the prison-house of the lost. And it proclaims 
a goodness, wisdom, and love vast as a sea without 
a bottom or a shore. It is also the symbol of an 
agency, which all the universe beside could not 
furnish, by which Satan's dominion is broken from 
the enslaved souls of men, their sins blotted out, 
and they made to share once more the light and 
liberty of the sons of God. But, beyond and above 
all this, it is the enduring memento of a victory which 



180 THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 

has gained for us the privileges of eternal empire, 
— of a purchase by which we become ''kings and 
priests unto God," to share the throne of the "Heir 
of all things," and to sit with him in immortal 
regency, as he is seated with the Father on the 
central throne of heaven. Oh, dear and blessed 
cross, that has been the instrument of such won- 
drous good to man ! 

Potent also should this subject be in impelling us 
to look with glad hope and devout desire for the 
coming again of Jesus to the earth. It is only 
when he comes that these judgeships and kinghoods 
shall be given. The " crowns of righteousness which 
the Lord, the Righteous Judge," shall ''give," are 
all reserved until "that day." It is only "when the 
Son of man shall sit upon the throne of his glory," 
when he shall come to judge the wicked and " make 
all things new," that the twelve apostles shall 
ascend their final thrones and judge the twelve tribes 
of Israel. All the sublimer honors and blessings 
of the kingdom are deferred till then. Not with- 
out comfort and rest and goodly fellowship with 
their Savior are those who now sleep in Jesus. 
Lazarus is "in Abraham's bosom." Paul is "with 
Christ, which is far better" tl^an any thing expe- 
rienced by him on earth. And all the toiling servants 
of God who have fallen asleep in the Lord "do rest 
from their labors." But they have not yet entered 
upon their final glory. Even the souls of the martyrs 
under the altar cry, "How long?" till the number 
of their brethren is complete, and the time to give 



THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 181 

reward unto the saints has come. It is only when 
Christ shall open these heavens and let himself 
be seen again by the children of men, and anti- 
christ and usurpation, with all the great potencies of 
evil, shall be overthrown by the visitations of his 
avenging arm, — when they that are in their graves 
shall hear his voice and come forth, and we which 
are alive and remain shall be caught up with them, 
— that we shall receive our crowns and enter upon 
the kingdoms prepared for us. The most precious 
day of all days to us should, therefore, be the day of 
our Lord's return. It is to be our coronation -day, 
— the day that is to fulfil to us all that the gospel 
promises, all that the Savior has bought for us by 
his blood and tears, and all for which we have been 
rendered fit by our patience and sufi'erings, prayers 
and labors, in his cause, — the day of his own com- 
pleted glory, which his people are to stare. 

But above all should this subject serve to render 
us heavenly-minded, and to deliver us from the fri- 
volities of worldliness and the entanglements of an 
unsteady faith. If we are to be kings, we ought to 
conduct ourselves with reference to the positions of 
exaltation and authority which we expect to occupy. 
If we have been anointed to share in the sublime 
adjudications of the world to come, we should exhibit 
a corresponding bearing, and study, labor, and pray 
to be filled with that spirit of truthfulness, wisdom, 
justice, and harmony with the mind of God, which 
alone can qualify us for duties so responsible and 
sublime. People who expect to be judges dare not 

16 



182 THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 

spend their years of preparation in idleness, or waste 
their time upon perishing and useless trifles. They 
must be diligent in their search into the principles 
of right and truth. They must be earnest in bring- 
ing themselves under a proper discipline to be able 
calmly to hear and weigh causes and to decide them 
righteously. They need wisdom, and training, and 
culture, which can only be obtained by long, faithful, 
and laborious application. And how much more is 
it needful to be instructed, trained, and exercised in 
righteousness, to be fitted to participate in those sub- 
lime administrations for which the saints are des- 
tined ! Let us, then, go away from the contemplation 
of this subject resolved to work and pray and study 
as we never hitherto have done. Let us show by 
our way of using this world that we do really regard 
it as the mere temporary scene of preparation for 
judgeships and kinghoods in the world to come. 
Let us deal with its poor honors and possessions, not 
as things in which to locate our affections or to seek 
our portion, but as the mere perishable scaffoldings 
by which to mount up to far sublimer dignities, which 
are to endure forever. And as there are eternal 
princedoms placed within our reach, let us ever press 
forward to them, and see to it, above all things, that 
we do not " let them slip." 

And unto Him that loved us, and washed us from 
our sins in his own blood, and has engaged to make 
us kings and priests unto God, even the Father, to 
Him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever. 
Amen. 



THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 183 



EEMAEKS ON ISAIAH XXXII. 1, 

AND RELATED TEXTS AND THEMES.* 

"J. King shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judg- 
ment." — IsA. xxxii. 1. 

As to who this King is, there can be no doubt. " For this 
is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our right- 
eousness : and he shall execute judgment and justice in the 
earth." " Thine eyes shall see the King." " The Lord is our 
King." (Jer. xxiii. 5, 6, xxxiii. 15, 16 ; Isa. xxxiii. 17, 22.) 
The king and princes being separate persons, their rule 
must therefore be distinct; for there is not a case known 
where two kings have reigned over the same kingdom in 
an undivided state. The " King that shall reign in right- 
eousness" is, of course, the Savior; and "the princes that 
shall rule in judgment" are the saints, that shall be dele- 
gated to rule in some part of his universal kingdom. But 
where shall these " princes rule" ? It is said to the ten- 
talent servant, " Have thou rule over ten cities," and to 
the five-talent disciple, " Have thou rule over five." It 
would seem from these texts that the locality of their rule 
is also separate from each other, each in his own cities, 
neither party conjoined with, conferring, or interfering with 
the other, but separate and distinct in all that pertains to 
their own authority. It may be in form something like 
human courts of adjudication, but on a grand scale, almost 

* These "Remarks" vrere presented to the author of the foregoing Discourse 
Boon after its delivery. They were hardly written for publication,— at least, not in 
this connection. The liberty has been taken to print them in this place, as they 
form a sort of confirmatory supplement to the sermon which called them forth. 
The reader will find in them various hints which are well worthy of notice, espe- 
cially with respect to the qualifications necessary to fit mortals for the sublime 
domlDion which awaits the saints. 



184 THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 

incomprehensible to our present finite conceptions, and ac- 
cording to a standard of righteousness so high, so extensive 
and comprehensive, as to be beyond the reach of any system 
of human jurisprudence, however just and equable. For 
human perception could never penetrate the motive that 
led to an act, nor the degree of provocation by which it was 
incited. Witnesses may designate with precision the act 
itself; but the degree of guilt attached to each act must be 
estimated by the degree of premeditated malice. What 
human tribunal could so penetrate the motives and springs 
of actions as to render exact justice, in all its minutiae and 
details, without looking into *' the heart, from whence pro- 
ceedeth evil thoughts" ? True, evil acts must proceed from 
an evil heart ; " for a good tree bringeth forth good fruit." 
But whether the evil-doer be incited by injury, or whether 
he is himself a malicious aggressor, must determine the 
degree of guilt. Therefore no human legislator could legis- 
late for the heart, and no human justiciary could execute 
judgment upon its motives. 

To "rule," therefore, "in righteousness," in the Divine 
sense of the term, it would be necessary to invest the right- 
eous ruler with a certain degree of prescience in reference to 
the acts of men, and of inner perception of the thoughts of 
the heart. And the world cannot be ruled righteously, to 
the full extent of the term, until it is governed by rulers in- 
vested with some such powers. 

If, then, the world is to be governed by the resurrection- 
saints, — if they are "the princes that shall rule in judg- 
ment," — ^will they not be clothed with some such powers? 
Will they not necessarily be so, in order to fulfil all the 
functions of the promised rule of righteousness ? It is said, 
when our "Lord shall appear, they shall appear with him in 
glory," — that "they shall receive a crown of glory," — that 
" they shall be like him." (Col. ii. 4; 1 Pet. v. 4; 1 John 
iii. 2.) It may be that this power, by which they can see 
into the very thoughts, is to be one of the points of like- 
ness. It surely does not consist in resemblance to his per- 



THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 185 

sonal appearance alone. "Glory" is mentioned in one text, 
a "crown" in another, and "likeness" in another. The 
term " glory" includes a combination of attributes. A crown 
is an emblem of rule; but what kind? It cannot extend to 
the actions of men only ; for that would be no more than the 
function of an earthly monarch. This regal power with 
which the saints shall be invested, is everywhere spoken of 
as extraordinary. It is said, they shall be "joint heirs with 
Christ." (Rom. viii. 17.) Even while in the flesh, Christ 
exercised both omnipotent and omniscient powers. If the 
joint-heirship does not extend to his power, to what does it 
extend? If it extends to the outward, does it not also ex- 
tend to the inner, to the extent of discerning the causes of 
actions? Of course their power can never be universal; but 
it will, probably, be unlimited in their own spheres of rule, 
without which their government could not be complete. 

Are these princes, that shall rule in judgment, identical 
with the Bride ? We think not. There is a distinction be- 
tween the " King that reigns in righteousness," and the 
princes that "rule in judgment;" but the Queen is one with 
the King. In speaking of the relation of husband and wife, 
Paul says, "They two shall be one flesh;" and immediately 
adds, " This is a great mystery ; but I speak concerning Christ 
and the Church." (Eph. v. 29-32.) The Bride, then, must 
reign with the " King in righteousness." " They shall be one 
flesh." " For they [the number that makes up the Bride] are 
members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." (Eph. 
V. 30.) But it is never said of the princes, — the King's bro- 
thers, or the other members of the royal family, — that they 
are one with him. It is not even said that the children are 
one with the father, in the same sense that the bride is one 
with her husband. The Queen reigns at home with " the 
King;" while "the Princes," his brothers, are sent as vice- 
roys (vice-kings) to rule other provinces. The Queen may 
have a portion of universal rule conjointly with the King, — 
and this may constitute the joint-heirship, (which is the 
inheritance of the Bride alone;) but the Princes are limited 
16* 



186 THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 

in their rule to a definite number of cities, — five, or ten, ac- 
cording to their qualifications. 

It is a great mistake to think that all of the Church of the 
present dispensation are the Bride; just as great as to say 
that the King's relations were all the Queen. A king has 
persons of many different grades and offices in his house- 
hold and kingdom. First there are his relations, both near 
and distant. Then there are his guests, and officers, and 
subjects of various classes. Paul speaks of "things earthly" 
being the " shadovrs " or " patterns" of " things heavenly." 
When the heavenly King comes to establish his heavenly 
kingdom, (that his will " may be done on earth as it is in 
heaven,'') may not the present order and arrangement of 
earthly government be a figure, in some sense, of the order 
and arrangements of the government of " the world to come 
whereof we speak"? 

What are the qualifications of the Bride? Perfect obe- 
dience, perfect purity, and entire devotion to the work 
of Christ: — "Being crucified with Christ." "For ye are 
dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God ;" and " when 
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then ye shall also ap- 
pear with him in glory J^ (Col. iii. 3.) Here this state of 
deadness to the things of " the present world" is connected 
with the "joint inheritance of glory." Paul also expresses 
his entire renunciation of, and deadness to, the world, and 
his indifference to the loss or gain of worldly things in 
connection with his hope of the first resurrection ; and, 
though he had arrived at a state of crucifixion, he says he 
had not yet attained the privilege of the first resurrection, 
because he was not already perfect; but he still "followed 
after, reached forth, and pressed toward the mark for the 
prize of the high calling." What could express more entire 
deadness to worldly gain than the following? — " What things 
were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ; yea, doubtless, 
and I count all thing shut loss for the excellency of the know- 
ledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have sr^xffered the 
loss of all things, and do count them as nothing, that I may win 



THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 187 

Christ/' What could express more entire weanedness to 
the world? And yet he proceeds still further in the princi- 
ple of self-sacrifice, courting even a conformity to his suffer- 
ings and death, if he '^ might in any wise attain unto the resur- 
rection from among the dead." (Phil. iii. 7-15.) The first 
translation will partake of equal privileges with the first 
resurrection, and therefore must possess equal qualifications. 
And if a martyrdom in fact was necessary as a preparation 
for the first resurrection, a living martyrdom is necessary 
to qualify for the first translation. And Paul intimates as 
much in Phil. iii. 15 : — " Let us, therefore, as many as be 
perfect be thus minded/' What did he mean by " thus 
minded"? He had just expressed his meaning, — following 
after and pressing forward to the high mark, and being will- 
ing to be made conformable to his ''sufferings and death." Here 
we see, as in many similar passages, the connection of suffer- 
ing with these high blessings. Perfect obedience is equally 
necessary, " For he that breaks the least commandment, 
and teaches men so to do, shall be counted least in the 
kingdom of heaven ; but whosoever shall do and teach them, 
the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." 
Here we see that disobedience in the least thing involved 
serious consequences; and it was keeping the command- 
ments even to the least, that determined their position. If 
they keep all, even to the very least, there must be entire 
obedience; and what is entire obedience, but perfect obedi- 
ence ? And it is said, they must not only " do" the command- 
ments, but they must " teach them." And they must instruct 
others that they also must " teach them;" for they cannot have 
the position that is promised in connection with teaching, 
unless they teach others. So that if we do not teach them 
that they must teach, we have done but half our work. Some 
may say, all have not capacity. All have some capacity, — 
much more than they use. The lowest talent mentioned 
was one; but that one must be " put out at interest," as well 
as the ten, and just as strict an account was required of it. 
If all have not capacity, it will be given. " For if any man 



188 THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 

lack wisdom, let him ask, and it will be given him." " Bat 
let him ask, nothing doubting; for let not that man that 
doubts think he will receive any thing of the Lord." They 
must not only be devoted to his work, but they must " be 
steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the 
Lord ; forasmuch as they know that their labor will not be 
in vain." (1 Cor. xv. 58.) It must be the work that Jesus 
did : — " For he that believeth on me, the works that I do 
shall he do also." And it must be in the same self-sacri- 
ficing spirit. They must be pure according to the very 
highest standard : — " For he that hath this hope maketh 
himself pure, even as he is pure." What hope? That of 
being " like him" when he comes. And it is intimated 
that their hope is not a safe one, unless thej'^ are making 
themselves pure by this high standard. And it is the very 
highest that could be set, — " even as he is pure." 

See the character given of those who stand on Mount 
Zion with him before the judgment begins. They were un- 
defiled, guileless, faultless ; they had '* followed the Lamb 
whithersoever he went," both in service and suffering. (Rev. 
xiv. 4, 5.) This body of persons evidently comprises the 
first translation and the first resurrection. For some "were 
redeemed from the earth ;" (these represent the first resurrec- 
tion:) and there were others that were ^' redeemed from among 
men;" (these represent the first translation.) They are 
called ** the first-fruits unto the Lamb." (That is, the first 
th&t were redeemed from death in the new dispensation: "to 
wit, the redemption [or resurrection] of the body.") The 
one party were " redeemed from the earth," and were " the 
first-fruits unto the Lamb." This was the period of their 
triumph over death, (or the period of the first resurrec- 
tion or redemption.) The other party are mentioned as 
being redeemed from among men." They triumphed over 
death also; for they are changed from mortal to immor- 
tality without passing through the process of death. In 
that sense, they may also be said to be redeemed from 
death. (Rev. xiv. 3, 4.) These alone sang the " new song, 



THE JUDGESHIP OF THE SAINTS. 189 

which no man could learn but the one hundred and forty- 
four thousand/' And this was what they sung : — " We shall 
reign on the earth; for thou hast made us kings." (Rev. 
xiv. 3, V. 10.) No others could sing that song, because no 
others were " made kings." 

We see, then, the characters of those who are to enjoy 
those first blessings, and escape that time of tribulation 
which shall come upon those "whose work shall be burned" 
and themselves " saved so as by fire." It must be unseason- 
able work that is burned, — like those who still go on preach- 
ing the permanency of a dispensation that is passing away, 
directing the attention of their people to a glorious millen- 
nium of peace on earth, instead of hastening their prepara- 
tion for the coming of the Lord. It is in connection with 
the judgment that Paul says, " Knowing, therefore, the 
terror of the Lord, we persuade men ; for we must all ap- 
pear at the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may re- 
ceive the things done in his body, whether it be good or bad." 
(2 Cor. V. 10, 11.) We see here that every one is to receive 
according to his own doings, without exception, both good 
and bad, — not for what somebody else has done for them. 
" For he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I 
give power over the nations." (Rev. ii. 26.) Rule over the nations 
is promised as the direct reward of works, which must ac- 
cordingly be of the most perfect and self-sacrificing kind. 







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